Stage_Setter_Essay

United States Army | Stage Setter Assessment Essay | “The Pentagon’s New Map” | | MAJ Andres Garcia | 12/5/2012 | | Thomas P.M. Barnett's thesis of “The Pentagon’s New Map” states that the world is divided into parts. The first part is called the “Functioning Core, or Core.”(Barnett, 2003) The second part of the world is called the “Non-Integrating Gap, or Gap.” (Barnett, 2003) According to Barnett, nations where “…globalization is thick with network connectivity, financial transactions, liberal media flows, and collective security… featuring stable governments, rising standards of living, and more deaths by suicide than murder” (Barnett, 2003) are part of the Functioning Core. Nations “…where globalization is thinning or just plain absent … plagued by politically repressive regimes, widespread poverty and disease, routine mass murder, and-most important-the chronic conflicts that incubate the next generation of global terrorists” (Barnett, 2003) are part of the Non-Integrating Gap. The purpose of this division by Thomas Barnett is that the nations that are identified to be in the Gap are the locations that the United States should focus on to maintain the security of our nation. According to Barnett, ignoring the nations that are considered to be part of the Gap will continue to flourish and support terrorist networks that will be a constant threat to the United States and our allies. I believe there is merit to Barnett’s thesis about the world being divided by two types of nations. In the past thirty years I have witnessed in the news the atrocities that terrorist organizations have committed in every country in the world. I also don’t believe that the world can be divided so simplistically. Even the United States has its own homegrown terrorists that have nothing to do with the Middle East or its Jihadists. There are militias in the U.S. that wish to overthrow the U.S. Government believing it is a tyrannical government. In Ireland, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) is considered to be a terrorist organization by the United Kingdom due to their violent attacks towards the British Government. Ireland and the U.S. are considered to be part of the Functioning Core, yet we have our own terrorists at home. Over the past decade, there have been multiple attacks on the U.S. and its allies from Al-Qaeda. It began with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa and then the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Yemeni Port of Aden. The U.S. response to these attacks was minimal. It was not until September 11, 2001, when four different cells hijacked four planes and crashed them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The U.S. response to the 9/11 attacks was a global declaration of war on terrorism. Barnett was correct in the assumption that going to war in Iraq and taking down Saddam Hussein was a necessity. Iraq is centrally located in the Middle East. The attempt to emplace a stable government in Iraq in order to connect them into the globalization Functioning Core could trigger a domino effect that would get the other Muslim countries to be part of the globalization effort. According to the Washington Post, since the Arab Spring 2011 uprising, there have been four Muslim leaders that were overthrown. In Egypt it was Hosni Mubarak, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Moammar Gaddafi of Libya, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen. Two were imprisoned, one was killed and the fourth stepped down as President. Barnett’s theory is that if we can get the countries identified to be in the Gap get connected to globalization, there will be fewer attacks by terrorist organizations. Getting nations connected to globalization does not necessarily mean that terrorist attacks will stop. Barnett states that the countries that are disconnected from globalization are a threat and need to be dealt with via U.S. military intervention. It is not the nations themselves that attack us, but groups of Islamic Jihadists that wish to do us harm. Barnett states in his article that countries that continue to stay disconnected will flourish with terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda did in Afghanistan. In the past 10 years, the United States had been at war in two countries, Afghanistan and Iraq. These two wars have been about taking down the terrorists that have been responsible for multiple attacks on the U.S. The war in Iraq was something Barnett had stated was inevitable because it is disconnected from globalization and made the U.S. see that Iraq is a central point in the Middle East. In order for the Middle to stabilize itself from dictatorship and civil unrest it needs to become connected. According to Barnett, it is the instability in the Middle Eastern countries that cause these terrorist organizations to flourish and continue to be a threat to the U.S. and our allies. I don’t believe that just because a country is poor and detached from globalization that those countries are the only threat to our way of life. For example in the U.S. we have street gangs that cause street violence, militia groups that conduct terrorist acts against the government, and different types of racial organizations that commit acts of violence towards one or more races. Barnett believes that diplomacy does not work in the Middle East, but it is not the nations themselves that are the actual threat but the terrorist organizations that thrive in those countries. As in Afghanistan, the U.S. and its allies did not go to war against Afghanistan. We went to war against Al Qaeda and to assist the Afghan government in removing the Taliban regime from power. Just like the militant groups that reside in the U.S., the Taliban is a militant group that exists in Afghanistan and Pakistan and imposes its rule over the people in Afghanistan through violence. Barnett believes that the only way to “shrink the gap” (Barnett, 2003) is for the U.S. to take the lead and impose its will in the Middle East, Africa, parts of South America and parts of Asia. It is not possible for the U.S. alone to take on such a task because it is not cost effective. According to Reuters, the U.S. has spent over $3 Trillion in both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We also cannot ignore the issue that terrorist organizations do exist in many of these countries that wish us harm, but peaceful diplomatic relations with these countries should be the first thing that our government should do to assist in the war on terror. Just like the U.S. has its own homegrown terrorists, the U.S. should create diplomatic relations to assist these countries in taking out their terrorist organizations; assist these countries through training and not by providing a military force in their endeavors: Allow the local government’s police force or military force to handle the situation. If military assistance is needed, assist with drone strikes on specific targets and not with the ground forces. The war in Iraq has ended and the war in Afghanistan is coming to an end. It is important to realize that in the past decade both wars have been costly not only in monetary amounts but in the loss of lives. In the war in Iraq, we got rid of Saddam Hussein and emplaced a more democratic government, but it is still not a stable country. The Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has become a problem for the current Iraqi government. The U.S. withdrew its troops from Iraq and the AQI continues to conduct acts of violence against the Iraqi people. U.S. involvement in these countries does not necessarily mean that we will be rid of terrorism. Terrorist organizations will always be a problem but it is up to that nation to deal with the issues on their own. The U.S. should not ignore the problem, but we can’t be the solution to every conflict that occurs in the world. Since 9/11, the United States has increased its security along the borders, at airports, and our overseas bases. Attacks on U.S. forces and diplomats have been minimal because the U.S. response has been more than just going to war against Al Qaeda. The U.S. is no longer under the impression that we are not vulnerable. The U.S. is vulnerable to terrorist attacks, but we have taken measures to mitigate those vulnerabilities and ensure that another 9/11 does not occur. Bibliography 1. Barnett, Thomas PM. “The Pentagon’s New Map.” Esquire (March 2003): 174-179 & 227-228. 2. Staff reports, Associated Press. “Toppled Leaders in the Middle East.” The Washington Post, (June 2, 2012), http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/toppled-leaders-in-the-middle-east/2012/06/02/gJQA7LZ89U_graphic.html 3. Trotta, Daniel. “Cost of war at least $3.7 trillion and counting.” Reuters, (June 29, 2011), http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/29/us-usa-war-idUSTRE75S25320110629