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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE 21st CENTURY
From 9/11 to World War III
2000 – 2033
In late 2002, US President George W. Bush (R-TX) debated going to war with the Republic of Iraq based upon intelligence given to his administration stating that the dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, had amassed an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and was prepared to put them into the hands of the terrorists. Within the administration, there was a great debate about how to go about handling the so called “Axis of Evil” states consisting of Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who later became the Secretary of State, argued to continue the existing US foreign policy consisting of the establishment of multilateral consensus for action which would be in the form of harsh sanctions. The opposing view was argued by US Vice-President Richard B. Cheney (R-WY), Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Defense Department policy makers such as Richard Perle and well-known Neo-Con Paul Wolfowitz. They argued that direct and unilateral action was possible and justified and that the United States should embrace the opportunities for democracy and security offered by its position as the sole remaining superpower. This essentially meant that the United States had the right to launch pre-emptive strikes. Bush sided with Cheney and the Defense Department, the later of which later wrote what would be known as the Bush Doctrine.
Though the United Nations Security Council rejected the wishes of the United States to use military forces in Iraq, they could not stop the inevitable. On March 19, 2003, the invasion of Iraq began with forces from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and other members of the Coalition of the Willing. Within a month, the Baath party of Saddam Hussein was driven from power and Hussein had found his way into exile. On the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, Bush stood in front of a banner that said “Mission Accomplished” and declared that major combat operations had ended and that the United States had been victorious. However, the mission was far from being accomplished.
Though Hussein was captured in late December, 2003, insurgent attacks began against coalition forces in Baghdad and other major Iraqi cities and provinces. Attacks were also made against civilizations, underlining the sharp Sunni-Shiite divide in not only Iraq, but the entire Middle East. The Bush Administration worked feverishly to try to keep the American people supporting the conflict. After Bush won re-election after defeating challenger Senator John Kerry (D-MA), it appeared that the people still supported the war. The conflict, however, continued to spiral out of control.
Though an Iraqi government was elected democratically, they were not able to make any major process in ending the violence and allowing United States soldiers to leave. Their ineffectiveness frustrated not only the United States government, but the American people as the image of the United States across the world had been tarnished due to what they believed to be an unnecessary and unjustified war. Bush continued to put pressure on the small country, but in the end the government of Nouri al-Maliki proved to be interested only in personal gain rather than the safety and security of its own nation.
Another controversial move by the Bush Administration was the proposal to put a missile defense system in the Czech Republic. Russian President Vladmir Putin surprised Bush with a counterproposal in June, 2007 of sharing the use of Soviet-era radar systems in Azerbaijan rather than building new systems in the Czech Republic. Putin expressed readiness to modernize the system and proposed that it would not be necessary to place interceptor missiles in Eastern Europe. He said that missiles could be placed in NATO countries such as Turkey or Iraq. Putin also suggested equal involvement of interested European countries in the project.
The Russians argued that the United States proposal presented a probe to the real intent of the country with regard to their shield plans: if America’s real concern was Iran, then Putin’s offer was unbeatable as detecting Iranian missile launches from Azerbaijan would be more reasonable than doing so from Eastern Europe. The United States continued to press their own proposal, leading the Russians to publicly believe that the missile defense systems was to truly be used in an effort to neutralize the Russian nuclear potential.
On October 16, 2007, Russian President Vladamir Putin visted Tehran, Iran to participate in the Second Caspian Summit where he met with Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Other participants were leaders of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. It was the first visit of a Russian leader to Iran since Joseph Stalin’s participation in the Tehran Conference in 1943. At a press conference after the summit, Putin said that “all our (Caspian) states have the right to develop their peaceful nuclear programs without any restrictions”. During the summit, it was also agreed that its participants would under no circumstances let any third-part state use their territory as a base for aggression or military action against any other participant.
What was not known to the rest of the world was that Putin and Ahmadinejad made a secret alliance in an effort to counter the influence of the United States in the region. Putin also agreed to supply Iran with scientists and equipment needed for building a nuclear bomb and, eventually, a nuclear arsenal if the need for it arose. Iran questioned Russia’s motives in such a maneuver, but Russia told them that they believed the United States wanted to use the proposed missile defense system in the Czech Republic against their homeland in a second Cold War.
The War in Iraq became the central focus of the 2008 United States Presidential Election. Though there were many qualified contenders in the primaries for both major political parties, only one could win from each party. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) won the Democratic Party nomination and selected Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) as her running mate. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) won the Republican Party nomination and selected Former Government Mitt Romney (R-MA) as his running mate. The election was long and tiresome, and the American people had become frustrated with the constant referrals to the War on Terror and the attacks of September 11th. In the end, however, Senator Clinton won the general election and became the 44th President of the United States of America.
President Clinton immediately began trying to change the strategy in the War in Iraq, even though Vice-President Obama wanted a complete withdrawal of United States forces. She set a deadline for March 1, 2010 for the Iraqi government, saying that if there would no longer be a blank check and that if they did not meet the first series of political benchmarks in that one year span there would be real consequences. Along with the benchmarks, Defense Secretary Joe Lieberman certified that all troops in Iraq would be given the equipment that they needed.
After six months, the Clinton Administration gave a report to the United States Congress and, later, the United Nations stating that the political benchmarks had not yet been met. Secretary of State Wesley Clark traveled to Iraq in hopes of finding a way to get the government to meet the political benchmarks, but when he returned he told President Clinton that it was clear it would not happen. In the end, the former four star general was right. Clinton’s deadline came and went.
On March 7, 2010, Clinton announced that because of the Iraqi government’s ineffectiveness the United States would withdraw its forces. al-Qaeda felt that it was a gift from the Muslim God and the Iraqi people rejoiced. Although the American people had wanted the war to end for some years, the end was bittersweet was tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians were dead, as were thousands of American soldiers.
On January 1, 2012, all but three thousand troops had left Iraq. The three thousand that remained protected the Green Zone where United States diplomats stayed for some months after. In November, 2012, Clinton defeated Governor Romney in a land-slide re-election. After her inauguration in January, 2013, she pulled the rest of the United States troops and diplomats out of Iraq. She addressed the American people, telling them that she believed that the region could work on stabilizing itself.
Unfortunately, Clinton was wrong in her assessment of the situation. Iran revealed that they were able to successfully create a nuclear weapon and Pakistan was overthrown by the more radical forces of its military and government. The two radical nations formed an alliance and essentially became the leaders of the Middle East. It did not take long for the Middle East to break down into chaos, with the different sects of Islam fighting against one another for dominance over their religion. Under increasing attack in the region, the United States was forced to pull their forces and diplomats from the Middle East in order to protect the lives of their people. When that happened, the Middle East officially fell under the control of radical jihadists.
With the Middle East in the hands of the radicals, Israel immediately began strengthening their military and began creating new nuclear weapons, though they did not publicly have nuclear weapons. However, it was not enough. In 2015, with help from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Syria, Hezbollah of Lebanon and radical forces in Egypt, the Pakistanis launched a campaign against the Israeli people and took over Jerusalem. It did not take long for more of the country to fall under Pakistani control, officially making two separate states: Israel and Palestine, both having nearly equal land in what had once only been Israel.
Following the events in Israel and Palestine, Russia officially announced that it had helped Iran in the creation of their nuclear weapons, though they said that they had nothing to do with the events in Israel which the evidence backed up. In the years between 2015 and 2018, the Russian government went through a series of reforms until it officially declared itself the Russian Soviet Federation. With the help of the new communist regime, China also reformed itself from a Democratic-Communist state into a sole Democratic state. The two communist superpowers officially declared themselves allies, along with Iran and Pakistan.
The United States knew that they needed an advantage over their enemies. By 2020, construction began on the Lunar base that had been in the planning stages since 2003. By 2029, a fully operation Lunar base had been established with military forces such as an arsenal of missiles and a few dozen troops. The Russian and Chinese space agencies followed in the footsteps of the United States in 2025, but due to their economic problems the construction on their bases went far slower.
The rest of the former allies from World War I and World War II began to form a stronger alliance, forming a stronger NATO and European Union. Due to the increasing tension from Eurasia, Asia and Central and South American countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Columbia, the three North American countries forced themselves to put aside their differences and formed a weak North American Union in an effort to coordinate their militaries and have stronger economic cooperation. India, being the fierce enemy of Pakistan, joined the North American-European alliance, as did many African countries such as South Africa and the Egyptian government, though the latter was becoming increasingly unstable. North Korea joined with the Eurasian-Asian alliance and Australia, Japan and South Korea joined the North American-European cause. New Zealand declared neutrality, much to the dismay of the allies.
With the increased tensions, the United Nations tried desperately to avoid what had seemed to be an inevitable world war. By 2031, Russia and China had left the United Nations, but the United States vowed to stay and try to finish the conflict that they reluctantly admitted that they started. In 2032, New Jersey Governor Patrick Keylan (R) was elected President of the United States and vowed to continue the United States efforts to avoid a third world war. However, in 2033, more and more nations had left the United Nations. The Russian government covertly planted explosives in the base of the United Nations building and when the smaller and weaker Security Council was in session, they lit the explosives and destroyed the building. However, there was no evidence to suggest who had destroyed the building.
Though the nations of the world had not yet declared war, they knew that war would soon come. It was then that the radical nations of the world began looking over the Bush Doctrine, realizing that they could use its principles in their own war against the so-called "west"....