Abstract
"On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars. But for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941". The terrorist attacks of September 2001 represent a second Pearl Harbor, America is touched in its heart as the number of casualties is significant and as symbols of the US power were attacked (the Twin Towers in New-York and the Pentagon in Washington). These attacks have quickly been attributed to the Islamic terrorist organization called Al-Qaeda and to its chief Osama Bin Laden. The enemy of the US was then identified and America had the same reaction as sixty years before: fight back. However, the situation was totally different at the time. The enemy, Japan, was a State and was easy to attack. Al Qaeda is different as it is an organization and is thus difficult to identify geographically. This war against terrorists was new. Not only was it directed against Al Qaeda but it also concerned terrorism in general. In that declaration, G.W. Bush named it when he heralded: "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there." The concept spread was: "War on terror" (WoT). He developed it in the same speech: "It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated". Bush himself defined the concept of War on Terror and launched a new era in the US Foreign Policy. But, what was driving this War on Terror? Was it revenge after this terrible attack? Was it a will to eradicate terrorism? Or, was this concept only a pretext to serve the imperialism of the US and spread democracy?
