The War on Terror was officially declared on 12 September 2001, by US President George W. Bush, and the invasion of Iraq 18 months later took place as part of that war. Since then, other states have joined the US-led coalition in fighting that now global war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, but also in many other parts of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and the Americas, in terms of training, conducting military exercises, combat and air/drone strikes. Seventeen years after the first invasion, of Afghanistan, the US was actively engaged in countering terrorism in 80 nations on six continents, including Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, Philippines, Australia, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Yemen and South Africa (Savell, 2019).

‘Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated’ Bush promised in his State of the Union address on 21 September 2001 (Bush, 2001c). That promise was made on the back of 2,977 deaths ten days earlier, but since that clear day on 11 September 2001, hundreds of thousands of civilians have lost their lives in unimaginable violence, over 200,000 in Iraq alone. And with such devastating loss of life in a war not only still fought, but also grown in size, comes the question: what is this War on Terror? Other than to ‘find, stop and defeat’ terrorist groups, why are men, women and children killed daily, or live in poverty and fear, without home or country? How can we come to understand this human insecurity, its context and its consequences?

This chapter aims to provide an understanding of the context/s of those deaths, an understanding of the importance of recording them and, finally, an understanding of war not through military deaths or victories, not through states and borders, but through the security of the civilians whose lives have been impacted.

The wars

‘The 1991 war against Iraq never ended. The United States and Iraq agreed to a ceasefire on February 28, 1991, but this agreement did not signify the coming of peace. Rather, the war was transformed into an eleven-year-long siege. US military forces enforced the tightest economic blockade against an entire country in human history.’