U.S. War on Terrorism: Change in World Opinion?

Not in the slightest. The phrase 'War On Terrorism,' elevates criminals to the status of prisoner of war, and helps legitimise the whole activity.

It's an unwinnable war which also helps the arms dealers. Certain actions by the US in the 'War on terror' such as the illegal invasion of Iraq, extraordinary rendition and Guantanamo Bay have acted as a recruiting sergeant for IS and Al Qaida.

The phrase only came about after 9/11, which suggests America only cares about terrorism when it happens in America. Americans were quite happy to bankroll the IRA.

The War on Terrorism was wrong when Dubya coined it, and it's just as wrong today.

Nothing here. Dubya went and listed North Korea in the "Axis of Evil," thus (along with stopping heavy oil shipments already agreed upon) shitting all over the progress that Clinton had made towards negotiating a nuclear disarmament agreement. The events in Europe and elsewhere haven't had any significant impact here, as far as I can tell.

He also included Iran in that definition, shitting all over the work Jack Straw had done.

Shitting all over everything was the only thing he was good at.

Got that right.

It would be polite to say I am absolutely furious with the tone-deafness of the American government and its belief that it understood/understands anything about how things work in the Middle East.

35 years of idiocy and they're still making things worse

Just as Bush was preparing the invasion of Iraq, I told my gung ho little brother, "You are not going to be happy with the way that war ends. When they get into that part of the world, they don't know what they are doing." I stand by that today.

In France, I don't think so. We have been attacked before, even long before 9/11 and the US 'war on terror'. Terrorism is not as new a thing for us as it is for you.

Not in the least. I have supported the American War on terrorism all along and will continue to do so. The attacks in this country have only heightened my disgust at those perpetrators and the ilk who back them and the people who have their heads buried in the sand, afraid to say boo for fear of being a target. That is what the terrorists want and expect. These terrorists don't care about life or your opinion and if there isn't a firm footing against them then we will not win that fight and free the downtrodden. GOD BLESS AMERICA
As for the do-gooders who are continually chomping at the bit and calling everything that is said rascist, You are the people who are weakening society and giving the terroists what they want.

Invading Iraq, where there was little if any terrorist activity, was giving the terrorists what they wanted.

There's plenty of downtrodden people in Honduras courtesy of Chiquita and Dole.

The problem with you lot is you're too stupid to actually solve anything, and you're a bunch of hypocrites who preach freedom whilst exploiting and enslaving great swathes of Latin America.

The only terrorism in Iraq was government sponsored . It had started 2 bloody wars and was probably working on a third . How do you know what terrorists wanted or are you having another emotional moment ?

Ms dizzythetush for world leader....

Nope . Maybe slightly more resolved .

I appreciate all contributions. My only viewpoint is that the United States government needs to pay attention to world opinion regarding any military action.

The UN already does that and it is useless at preventing anything .

Could be, Wandel.

And of course, one person's terrorism is another person's patriotism...or humanitarian responsibility.

But one way or another...terrorism has to be dealt with.

We here in America have gotten stuck on this "war on..." nonsense.

We must deal with the fact that terrorism exists...and that terrorists must be dealt with. Terming it a "war on terrorism" is just using words for the sake of using words.

I made a dozen trips to Honduras over a 10-yr period. I can verify that. It's thinly veiled slavery down there. Pure and simple.

What really pisses me off is how these right wing idiots make a big fanfare about fighting terrorism and standing up for the oppressed, then they do the exact opposite.

The problem with the war on terror is that it hasn't worked, it's been counter productive. ISIS didn't even exist before the war on terror, and now look at it. As for the oppressed, they're very selective about which oppressed they stand up for, the ones who don't affect their business interests.

If the war on terror had actually achieved anything I might think differently. It's hasn't, it's been a catastrophic failure right from the start. It's time to start thinking about solutions that actually work.

Seems the right has tunnel vision. The American "War on Drugs" was no less disastrous than the "War on Terrorism." Both about equally as effective (read: counter-productive to everything but their collusive short-term bottom line).

Even now, there are those who still think invading Iraq was a good thing. The same sort of people who view Moslems as one homogenous bloc, who, like Dubya, don't even appreciate the most basic differences like Sunni and Shia, let alone the more subtle ones.

"Kill 'em all and let God sort it out" is pretty much their only approach. Working out the nuances requires too much brain work, and it doesn't result in profit for Halliburton, et al. Killings and big explosions sell to their constituents, as it's taken as evidence of the Duh' Merkun inherent superiority. Not sure how that plays out in your country's demographics, but that's the way it is where I come from. Sadly.