Post–September 11 anti-war movement

The post–September 11 anti-war movement is an anti-war social movement that emerged after the September 11 terrorist attacks in response to the War on Terrorism.

On September 11, 2001 a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States killed approximately 3000 people. These attacks appear to have been carried out by a small group of individuals who formed part of the al-Qaida network: Islamists without formal backing from any state (though there were and are suspicions that Al-Qaida was aided and funded by several Arab/Muslim countries). Following them U.S. president George W. Bush declared a campaign with the stated aim of defeating terrorism which he called the "War on Terrorism".

Although which of his programs constitute part of this "war" have has never been formally articulated, the term appears to embraces at least two major Bush administration initiatives: a set of changes to U.S. criminal law and immigration law (most notably through the USA PATRIOT Act) and the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The term may also embrace such related matters as the creation of a Department of Homeland Security.

Many of those on the left and others who would come to oppose the War on Terrorism did not believe that it was really a response to the terrorist attacks. They point to the Project for the New American Century as proof that Bush was merely using the atrocities as an excuse to put the Imperialist plans of the neoconservatives into action. They also point to what they perceive as the ineffectiveness of Bush's strategy for actually reducing terrorism and the lack of any link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.

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