‘US still haunted by security questions ahead of 9/11 anniversary’ - expert
International Relations expert John Streamlau says the United States hasn’t recovered from the deadly 9/11 attacks, 20 years after the tragedy.
The country will mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks on Saturday.
The Al-Qaeda hijackings of September 11, 2001 were the first foreign attack on the US mainland in nearly two centuries, rupturing a sense of safety and plunged the West into wars still being fought today.
Close to 3000 people were killed when two passenger jets destroyed the Twin Towers in New York.
Another jet slammed into the Pentagon, and a fourth jet crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after those on board tried to overpower the hijackers.
Although the US has re-established itself as one of the most powerful nations, it remains haunted by security issues.
“I’d be hard-pressed to come up with anything positive to say about it. It was a body-blow that the US did not handle well and has not handled well, not only did it respond by trying to get the terrorists, which was understandable and accepted by the international community. Trying pto rid Afghanistan of the Al-Qaeda people was justified but then it morphed into a nation-building process which the United States never should have embarked upon.”
Streamlau adds the US should look to South Africa for a template of international relations.
“I think that [Joe] Biden has signalled that what the Americans should do is focus, as we do here, on diplomacy.
“There is some learning process that is going on in the United States but at the moment it’s in the Democratic Party and not yet reached the Republic Party which are still hellbent on State Capture, to put it in South African terms, because they feel threatened by the increased diversity of America,” he says.
“In the long scheme of things, America should look like South Africa.”
Streamlau adds terrorism remains a real threat, particularly on the back of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
“South Africans are very good at deliberation ad that’s what you need but it takes time, it takes concentration, it takes energy and I worry that South Africa may have lost that ability to deliberate rather than to castigate and to isolate.”
Listen to Streamlau below:
ALSO READ:
