Steven Petrov
The Paw Print
The attacks of September 11th 2001 were of significant importance for the terroristic group of Al Qaeda because the Taliban organization hit the world’s media capital, New York, as well as the heart of the US military and law enforcement institutions, “The Pentagon” in Arlington County, Virginia. Most of the terrorists around the world are always looking to get the greatest possible “viewership” of the terroristic act, which for them is considered as a “success.” In these terms the severe, and terrifying attacks of September 11th were the most observed terroristic act in the world. In the post-September 11th days, months and years people have made numerous comparisons between this and the Japanese attack of the US Pacific Fleet headquarters of Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii on December 7th, 1941. Both attacks share few important similarities. In both cases the attacks were highly unexpected and resulted in the subsequent engaging of the US in military actions.
Pearl Harbor was an enormous tactical success for the Japanese empire, but eventually led to a far greater fall for Japan – in the span of 4 years after the Pearl Harbor attacks the Japanese empire was completely shattered into pieces. In much of the same manner the attacks from September 11th were considered a success for Al Qaeda, but it was the exactly these attacks that subsequently led to the overthrowing of the Taliban power in Afghanistan as well the destroying of Al Qaeda as an organization and the capturing of their leader Osama Bin Laden. The Taliban leader wanted to cause mass rebellion and a revolution in the Middle East, forcing the US and their allies in the region to “bow” before his power. However, the effect was the exact opposite and it was proven again that in our modern day world the tactics involving aggression and violence can never bring a success to neither an individual nor an organization.
The newest terroristic organization, Islamic State, has been trying to do something very similar. ISIS pretends to be a defender of the Islamic world and religion, while at the same time burns to death a pilot who was from Jordan and was a Muslim. Another major similarity is the desire of establishing a powerful caliphate in the Middle East. However, just as in the past this desire is shared only among the extremist organizations like ISIS, but not from the majority of the Muslim population in the region.
The history shows us that the majority of terrorist attempts that had failed to achieve their goals of establishing a long-lasting empire, caliphate or anything similar and had ended up being completely destroyed. According to many reporters and historians worldwide, ISIS had put itself in the footsteps of every other major terrorist organization that has failed in the past, by acting identical with its “predecessors.”
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