Us versus Them

“Us Versus Them” explores the political and cultural turmoil that prompted U.S. policymakers to shift their attention from containing the “Red Threat” of international communism to combatting the “Green Threat” of radical Islam after 1989. By framing the confrontation with Islamic extremism after the Cold War through the lens of “us versus them” that had pitted Uncle Sam against Native Americans, Asian immigrants, Nazis, and eventually the Bolsheviks in the Kremlin, U.S. policymakers from George H. W. Bush through Barack Obama placed America on a collision course with the Muslim world. Because the collapse of the Soviet Union seemed to prove that “containment” had served U.S. interests well, preserving access to Persian Gulf oil while protecting Israel and preventing communist subversion, American officials were reluctant to redefine their approach to the Middle East. While American leaders were busy expelling Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, attempting to broker peace between Arabs Israelis at Camp David, invading Afghanistan and Iraq, or unleashing drone strikes against Pakistan and Yemen, they inadvertently triggered an Islamic backlash that made America less secure and more vulnerable. Indeed, from the 1991 Persian Gulf War and Bill Clinton’s efforts to contain Iraq and Iran to George W. Bush’s global war on terror and the ongoing battle against ISIS today, U.S. foreign policy has been governed by “us versus them” thinking, with Islamophobia supplanting the threats of yesteryear

Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence · Cold war · Cold War (1945-1989) fast (OCoLC)fst01754978 · International Relations · Islamophobia · Middle east · Relations · united states

• This barbaric terrorist organization”

  Ben Fermor•Critical Studies on Terrorism•2021

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