Can the American Middle Eastern Policy Since 9/11 Be Considered A Failure?

As a result of these disastrous attacks, the United States launched an international war on terrorism by undertaking critical measures such as military intervention and nation-building in the Middle East. However, despite all the efforts undertaken by both the Bush and Obama administrations to end terrorist attacks that might pose a fatal threat to the American public have failed and destabilized the Middle East even more. The two key regions that we need to mention when analyzing American Foreign policy in the Middle East, especially after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, are Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bush administration paid exceptional attention to Afghanistan and Iraq, primarily because, as the argument goes, George W. Bush had a specific interest in Iraqi oil.

This argument seems relevant considering the fact that instead of focusing on North Korea, whose nuclear capabilities were real but did not possess oil, the United States chose to target a country that was known as the world's second-largest oil reserves and posed minor or no threat at all to the US.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, national security concerns took center stage to detain or even disregard other priorities. During George W. Bush's presidency, there have been substantial changes in foreign policy and rearrangement of power. By imposing hard power, the Bush administration has made matters even worse and gave rise to much hostility worldwide. Therefore, the efforts to promote the American economic model and democracy have been unsuccessful. President Bush took an aggressive strategy to tackle terrorism. The President's statements clearly privileged the United States above all other states in terms of values such as morality and legitimacy.

The decision to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan was not the most reasonable reaction to the 9/11 attacks. The Bush administration invaded Iraq on the grounds that any nation had the right to take precautionary measures when national security was in danger. The pursuit of terrorists was and is just; there can be no doubt on that. Nevertheless, there are substantial concerns regarding the "cause" in the "War on Terrorism". Instead of eradicating the very core conditions and causes of terrorism, the Bush Administration resulted in producing more chaos, which gave organizations such as ISIS and Al Qaeda more room to stage their campaigns.

References:

Waldman, M., 2013. System failure: the underlying causes of US policy-making errors in Afghanistan. International Affairs, 89(4), pp. 825-843.

Ryan, D. & Kiely, P., 2009. America and Iraq: Policy-making, intervention and regional politics. Routledge.

Reynolds, M. A., 2015. The War's Entangled Roots: Regional Realities and Washington's Vision. In: Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New York University Press.