Did 9/11 Really Change Everything?

In the months and years after the 9/11 attacks, America unveiled a new military doctrine that included the utilization of overwhelming preemptive military force against an enemy who existed in over 60 countries worldwide. At the dawn of the 21st century, American military capabilities far surpassed those of any nation or combination of nations on the planet and President George W. Bush and his administration were eager to display such capacity. At the heart of these new policies laid the strong belief that the 9/11 attacks had somehow transformed the nature of the world and made the enactment of specific military policies the only way to ensure American security in the new century. This book is designed to explore the world that existed both before and after 9/11 as well as the elements of the American domestic environment that influenced which policies were used to engage such a world. This comprehensive analysis – which ranges from the Cold War to the Iraq War - will challenge the merits of the perception behind the post-9/11 military strategies and determine why subsequent policies in Afghanistan and Iraq have not been successful in eliminating al Qaeda.