Panel Examines 9/11 Fifteen Years Later
The Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies hosted a panel of military and intelligence experts examining the events of September 11, 2001 fifteen years after the terrorist attacks took place.
The panel included 28-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency and prolific author on global, political and intelligence affairs Paul Pillar, Commander of Land Forces for Iraqi Freedom and Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) General David McKiernan, Pardee School Professor Emeritus and prolific author on global, political and security affairs Andrew Bacevich and former Director of CIA and MIT Professor Emeritus John Deutch.
Each member of the panel delivered brief remarks and then took questions from audience members including Pardee School faculty and students. The panel was moderated by Boston University College of Communication Assistant Professor of Mass Communications John Carroll.
Bacevich discussed the affect the events of September 11, 2001 had on how the American military considers culture as a component of warfare.
“The American military, especially U.S. ground forces, discovered culture as a consequence of the post-9/11 wars, and I think have come in the officer core to appreciate the relevance of culture to warfare — culture as a component in the conduct of warfare,” Bacevich said. “This discovery of culture did not apply any particular understanding or mastery of culture, however, but it has produced an appreciation of how culture does affect the conduct of war.”
McKiernan discussed the difficulty we now have in identifying and understanding our adversaries in the post-9/11 world.
“We’re in a 21st century environment now — we’re facing threats and making political decisions against adversaries that are very hard to define,” McKiernan said. “They’re very volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. There are rogue states, non-state actors, lone wolf terrorists, terrorist groups — there are fault lines within societies that we certainly don’t appreciate as Americans. We’re probably the most assimilated country in the world — the rest of the world is not like that and I don’t think we understand that sometimes. I think it’s time we need to have an honest discussion and question some of the terms we throw out so casually like ‘winning,’ ‘in state,’ and ‘exit strategy.’ Those things don’t mean as much in the 21st century as they used to.”
Pillar discussed the “shock effect” the terrorist attacks had on public opinion in the United States regarding armed conflict.
“It certainly made the American public much more militant, much more willing to incur costs and take risks in the name of national security,” Pillar said. “This was an emotional response little diverted or contained by any more sober calculations about exactly what would enhance national security and with little attention to how some people could exploit the emotional response for other purposes. The single most consequential result of all of this was the launching in 2003 of the war in Iraq. The war in Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 — it did because of this sudden increased militancy in the American public make politically possible for the first time this longstanding item on the neoconservative agenda.”
The panel was followed by a reception at the Pardee School of Global Studies.