Column | Europe prepared for the wrong war

Also 23 years ago, Finns watched in horror on television again and again how terrorists killed almost 3,000 people with hijacked planes in the WTC towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington and Shanksville in Pennsylvania. The Islamic terrorist group’s attacks on the political and economic core of the United States were a shock.

Now in August, the news reported that the United States was trying to make the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed with a deal in which he would avoid the death penalty by pleading guilty to 2,976 murders.

The agreement aroused mixed feelings, and the Minister of Defense Lloyd Austin stopped the plans. However, the United States is trying to break away from a process that has lasted more than 20 years and is difficult to end. The leader of the al-Qaeda movement was killed by US special forces Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. Over the years, hundreds of prisoners with a very special legal status have been tortured and detained at the Guantánamo prison camp.

Terrorist attacks are also a cynical way of pacing recent history. However, they significantly change the perception of what kind of things we consider to be future threats.

The attacks of September 11 were followed by a multi-phase upheaval in world politics, which is also reflected in the thinking and everyday life of Finns. An example is the backlog of security checks in Helsinki-Vantaa.

The United States quickly launched its war on terror. Its scenes were, among others, Iraq, Afghanistan and later also Syria, where the al-Qaeda network in Iraq transformed into ISIS.

The war on terror undermined America’s place in the world. When Western troops, led by the Americans, withdrew chaotically from Kabul in August 2021, Beijing and Moscow calculated that the moment was right to destabilize the lost West. The countdown to the invasion of Ukraine began in the Kremlin.

September Of course, the attacks on the 11th were followed by many other shocks that changed the perception of security: the financial and refugee crises, Britain’s departure from the EU, the coronavirus pandemic… Political scientist Ivan Krastev has estimated that the 2015-2016 refugee crisis caused by the wars in Syria and Afghanistan was a defining event for Europe in the same way as the WTC attacks.

In the refugee crisis, asylum seekers were framed as new enemies who threaten European well-being. This threat has appealed to voters and brought nationalist and racist political movements to power. That also changes perceptions of security threats.

“

Traditional war was left out of the threat picture.

The attacks of September 11 made the fight against terrorism a central part of the EU’s foreign and security policy. The effects can be seen in border control, the Intelligence Act, data protection, asylum policy and the strengthening of the position of security authorities. Traditional war was left out of the threat picture in many countries.

When Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, it became clear that Europe had been preparing for the wrong war for twenty years. The biggest threats were Russia and China.

Although terrorist attacks have not been avoided in Europe, they have decreased. Today, the terrorist threat is mainly posed by individuals who support radical Islamism or some other extreme ideology. The situation in the Middle East is increasing the risks now.

October 7 marks one year since the extremist organization Hamas attacked Israel, killing at least 1,170 people and taking around 250 hostages.

The atta
ck has been called Israel’s 11th September. What followed was a cycle of revenge and a war in Gaza. The risk of a wider regional war is acute. The threat of terrorism has also increased in Europe, as the war in Gaza is seen as an increase in confrontation between population groups.

The author is the editor-in-chief of HS.