Can the War on Terror ever truly end?

United States soldiers stand security at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August.15, 2021. Photo by Marine Corps Sgt. Isaiah Campbell. License: public domain via the US Department of Defense.

The War On Terror is the longest foreign war the United States has ever fought. So long that many of the soldiers fighting weren’t even alive when it started. But the WoT seems unusual for another reason—it’s not a war on a nation, or even an organization—it’s a war against a concept. 

September 11, 2001 was the alleged start date of this conflict, after the Twin Towers fell.  President George W. Bush stood before congress announcing, “Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.”

For many young people, the WoT is all they’ve ever known, and it can be hard to imagine a time before the United States fought this kind of war.  But Dr. Alex Lubin counters this idea in his book: Never-Ending War on Terror.  He argues that the United States often prefers this kind of conceptual warfare, and those examples can be seen in the American Indian Wars and the response to movements such as the Black Panthers. 

In this episode of UnTextbooked, producer Ruba Memon talks to Dr. Lubin about living with the casual Islamophobia that’s permeated her entire life, the true meaning of the word “terrorist,” and the story of Malik Jalal, a Pakistani villager who petitioned to have his name removed from the United States’ drone-strike kill-list. 

Book: Never-Ending War on Terror

Guest: Dr. Alex Lubin, Professor of African American Studies at Penn State 

Producer: Ruba Memon

Music: Silas Bohen and Coleman Hamilton

Editors: Bethany Denton and Jeff Emtman