freedom. This is the world’s fight. This is civilization’s fight. This is
the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and
freedom.”^23 The successive strikes against Indonesia, Morocco,
Spain, and Great Britain lent weight to the conservative thesis that
terrorists strive for the destruction of democratic societies and liberal
values. Rejecting any notion that the governments of the rich countries
may be responsible – even indirectly – for the terrorist phenomenon,
conservatives have ascribed it to individual fanatics or rogue states,
ready to “strike at any place, at any time, and with virtually any
weapon.”^24 The magnitude of this perceived threat has justified
making the fight against terrorism a political priority ranking above
all others.
The hard line of the right has nowhere been expressed more clearly
than in US foreign policy. Under the influence of a group of neo-
conservative intellectuals for whom the elimination of the terrorist
threat is essential for national security, the Bush administration has
made the war on terrorism the cornerstone of its external relations.
This general objective legitimized both the military intervention in
Afghanistan in 2001 and the launching of the war in Iraq in 2003. In
turn, the opening of these two battlefronts justified a spectacular
expansion of the military budget. In the case of Iraq, where the debate
became highly polarized, US policy-makers succeeded in imposing
the necessity of a pre-emptive war, defined as “an act of anticipatory
self-defense.”^25 The argument was that the Iraqi government pos-
sessed weapons of mass destruction and thus represented “an immi-
nent threat of unprovoked aggression.”^26 For the American right, the
fact that no terrorist attack had occurred in the United States since
2001 provided decisive proof that a tough foreign policy offered the
best response to the scourge of international terrorism.
(^23) George W. Bush, “Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American
People,” Washington, DC, September 20, 2001 (www.whitehouse.gov/news/
24 releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html).
George W. Bush,The Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC,
25 2002, p. 13 (www.whitehouse.gov/deptofhomeland/toc.html).
Richard K. Betts, “Striking First: A History of Thankfully Lost Opportunities,”
New York, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, March 2, 2003
(www.cceia.org/resources/journal/17_1/roundtable/866.html).
(^26) Laura Neack,Elusive Security: States First, People Last, Lanham, Rowman &
Littlefield, 2007, p. 122.
206 Left and Right in Global Politics