The Costs of Overreaction This paper will summarize the article written by James Dobbins,(Chapter One) from the Long Shadow of 911 Rand book. This article revolves its main points around the idea that the United States was surprised so severely, that they made a rash decision based on impulse and determination which caused the United States to start to dive into debt. The current President at the time (George W. Bush), reacted very quickly to the attack by the Middle East with threats to Iraq, Iran, and North Korea to end their push towards nuclear weapons technology.
Dobbins thinks that it is significant to say that the 9/11 attacks were the first attacks on American soil since Pearl Harbor, which caused an outrage in the American people. …show more content…
called for the reduction of troop presence in Iraq, which could be found as deceiving. This is due to the fact that many people believed that the Bush Administration was more focused on restructuring Iraq than Afghanistan. This claim is backed up on page 17, where Dobbins refers to the underestimations that the United States government gave, in saying that the Afghani reconstruction would be almost self-financing. The shocking part about this is the fact that the Bush Administration ignored pleas by the UN, and Afghan to extend a security umbrella unto the Afhan people. The U.S. replied by saying that the security should be strictly left up to Afghanistan, who at the time had no military or police …show more content…
called for the U.N., as well as NATO to step up in regards to troop presence and support in 2004. This gave the Bush Administration more resources to use unequally to the hidden agenda which was Iraq. It became not so hidden, when Bush called the “surge” which pushed additional troops into Iraq. This brought on multiple comments by officials such as Secretary Rumsfeld, who said “stuff happens”, which was regarding the breakdown of any form of law or order in Iraq due to the war. One additional official: the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said “in Iraq, we do what we must, while in Afghanistan, we do what we can.” After Bush finished his second term, President Barack Obama came into office, realizing those issues, putting in place a policy which called for around 45000 troops to be put into Afghanistan, relocating the focus and resources to the original goal of the Bush campaign. This sounds good, as far as having the military presence in the right place, but was still a very costly choice to make. One idea of why he continued the Bush campaign, was that he did not want to completely lose the support of all of those who were still feeling justified for being overseas, fighting Al
Dobbins thinks that it is significant to say that the 9/11 attacks were the first attacks on American soil since Pearl Harbor, which caused an outrage in the American people. …show more content…
called for the reduction of troop presence in Iraq, which could be found as deceiving. This is due to the fact that many people believed that the Bush Administration was more focused on restructuring Iraq than Afghanistan. This claim is backed up on page 17, where Dobbins refers to the underestimations that the United States government gave, in saying that the Afghani reconstruction would be almost self-financing. The shocking part about this is the fact that the Bush Administration ignored pleas by the UN, and Afghan to extend a security umbrella unto the Afhan people. The U.S. replied by saying that the security should be strictly left up to Afghanistan, who at the time had no military or police …show more content…
called for the U.N., as well as NATO to step up in regards to troop presence and support in 2004. This gave the Bush Administration more resources to use unequally to the hidden agenda which was Iraq. It became not so hidden, when Bush called the “surge” which pushed additional troops into Iraq. This brought on multiple comments by officials such as Secretary Rumsfeld, who said “stuff happens”, which was regarding the breakdown of any form of law or order in Iraq due to the war. One additional official: the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said “in Iraq, we do what we must, while in Afghanistan, we do what we can.” After Bush finished his second term, President Barack Obama came into office, realizing those issues, putting in place a policy which called for around 45000 troops to be put into Afghanistan, relocating the focus and resources to the original goal of the Bush campaign. This sounds good, as far as having the military presence in the right place, but was still a very costly choice to make. One idea of why he continued the Bush campaign, was that he did not want to completely lose the support of all of those who were still feeling justified for being overseas, fighting Al