{"id":724,"date":"2002-10-31T21:46:13","date_gmt":"2002-10-31T21:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comw.org\/pda\/?p=724"},"modified":"2025-10-07T18:50:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T22:50:06","slug":"wider-war-on-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/wider-war-on-terrorism\/","title":{"rendered":"Wider War on Terrorism &#8212; its construction in the first year"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pubPostType\"><a class=\"htmlLink\" href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/widerwarwatch\/\" target=\"_newtab\" rel=\"noopener\">\u27aa HTML<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I write this in 2025.\u00a0 The War on Terrorism is back, big time.\u00a0 Now the White House targets the American people.\u00a0 About half the citizens of the US are terrorists in the eyes of Trump administration officials.\u00a0 Excellent moment to read up on what happened when President G.W. Bush invented the Global War on Terrorism.<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/wider-war-on-terrorism\/maskediceagent\/#main\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-25646\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-25646\" src=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2002\/10\/maskedICEagent-230x275.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"230\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2002\/10\/maskedICEagent-230x275.png 230w, https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2002\/10\/maskedICEagent-84x100.png 84w, https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2002\/10\/maskedICEagent.png 287w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 230px) 100vw, 230px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"pubPostType\"><span class=\"varPubSum\">In the fall of 2001, I began this Internet log (a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Blog#Origins\">blog<\/a>, before I had heard of that form of Internet journalism) linking readers to key articles, documents, and commentary that chronicled the unfolding of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), as announced by President G. <strong>W. Bush<\/strong>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"pubPostType\"><span class=\"varPubSum\">By early 2002, it was clear to me that the Bush administration was planning to expand the war from its initial invasion of Afghanistan to an invasion of Iraq.\u00a0 The blog has the following sections: [<a href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/widerwarwatch\/antecedents.html\">Antecedents<\/a>], [<a href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/widerwarwatch\/01sept.html\">September 2001<\/a>], [<a href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/widerwarwatch\/01oct.html\">October 2001<\/a>], [<a href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/widerwarwatch\/01nov.html\">November 2001<\/a>], [<a href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/widerwarwatch\/01dec.html\">December 2001<\/a>], [<a href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/widerwarwatch\/02jan.html\">January 2002<\/a>], [<a href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/widerwarwatch\/02febmarch.html\">February\/March 2002<\/a>], [<a href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/widerwarwatch\/02aprilmay.html\">April\/May 2002<\/a>], [<a href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/widerwarwatch\/02junejuly.html\">June\/July 2002<\/a>], and\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/widerwarwatch\/#top\">August\/September\/October 2002<\/a>].\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"pubPostType\"><span class=\"varPubSum\">By the end of October 2002,\u00a0 it was clear that Washington would invade Iraq the following spring.\u00a0 I stopped editing the blog at that point and turned my attention to preparing for the impending cataclysmic events.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"pubPostType\"><span class=\"varPubSum\">From the perspective of the past twenty-three years, I can say with absolutely no doubt that the many critics of the GWOT writing in that first year were far wiser than the leadership of both major political parties in Washington.\u00a0 \u00a0 ~ Charles Knight<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u27aa HTML I write this in 2025.\u00a0 The War on Terrorism is back, big time.\u00a0 Now the White House targets the American people.\u00a0 About half the citizens of the US are terrorists in the eyes of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10167552604075290_133638503385018":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[34,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-pda-resource-compilations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Wider War on Terrorism -- its construction in the first year &#8211; 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