Page 4 of 4 The core misconceptions in
the 'war on
terror' By John Feffer
either
be targets of an attack or that would be necessary
to respond effectively to such an attack.
Law is ultimately a more effective method
of ensnaring terrorists than military force. Osama
bin Laden remains at large, and military campaigns
have only swelled the ranks of his followers. A
more effective response to terrorism requires
strengthening the
national and international
legal infrastructure necessary to identify and
prosecute the individuals and organizations that
facilitate, finance, perpetrate, and profit from
terrorism.
A strengthened UN should be the
primary instrument for pursuing this objective.
Unilateralist elements within Congress and a lack
of enthusiasm by members of the administration
have been major obstacles to a more sustained and
constructive US engagement with the UN system.
In the immediate aftermath of the
September 11 attacks, the Bush administration made
an apparent U-turn with respect to the UN,
suddenly recognizing its importance in combating
terrorism. But that momentary honeymoon ended with
the invasion of Iraq and the administration's
ongoing campaign to undermine the International
Criminal Court. Such moves have weakened the
international legal architecture that represents a
globalization of America's firm principles and
beliefs in the centrality of the rule of law.
Revelations of torture sanctioned by Bush
administration personnel and efforts to exempt US
troops from Geneva Convention restrictions in
waging the "war on terrorism" have also raised
legitimate questions over the seriousness of the
Bush administration's commitment to international
law.
In a just security approach, a
balance between liberty and security need not
require sacrificing the former for the latter.
Such an approach would refuse to sacrifice the
fundamental elements of transparency and
accountability, which are necessary for democracy
to remain vital. It would refuse to subject people
like Maher Arar to unlawful detention and torture
because of "security "interests.
The
administration's approach to combating terrorism
should embody respect for the very human rights
that America defends and promotes at home. This
means that citizens should loudly proclaim
opposition to religious extremism and actions
taken in its name, no matter the perpetrator.
Citizens should also reject any policies that
undermine human rights norms in the name of a
"war" on terrorism, including those that inflict
casualties on innocent victims, that lift
restrictions on the CIA to allow assassinations,
and that permit the hiring of human rights
violators.
Finally, combating terrorism
requires looking beyond any one terrorist event -
horrific as it may be - to address the broader
socioeconomic, political, and military contexts
from which terrorism emerges. Because terrorism is
a particular kind of violent act aimed at
achieving a political objective, a preventive
strategy must also address its political roots in
occupation and oppression. The United States is a
target of terrorist attacks "because we support
governments and policies that are sources of their
oppression," writes banker and former president of
the New York Stock Exchange Richard Vague. [14]
Other root causes include failed and
failing states, which provide terrorists with
unregulated arenas for operations; economic
inequality, which can enhance support for
terrorist acts and provide a source of recruits,
even though poverty itself does not cause
terrorism; and efforts by one country to
institutionalize a position of global dominance,
including through alliances with repressive
regimes. Addressing root causes is one way of
insuring that the efforts of terrorist groups to
mobilize support meet as inhospitable a social,
economic, and political climate as
possible.
In his 1941 State of the Union
Address, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
talked about Four Freedoms. The first two -
freedom of speech and religion - came directly
from the US constitution. The third, freedom from
want, derived from the experience of the Great
Depression of the 1930s. But the fourth one,
freedom from fear, spoke to a public facing the
escalation of a world war that would, before the
year was out, engulf the United States.
Today, the US government has forgotten
that this fourth freedom is as precious as the
other three. Fear created the "global war on
terror." Fear propelled the invasion of Iraq. Fear
plucked Maher Arar from the immigration line at
JFK airport and consigned him to a year of torture
and imprisonment.
Fear is the greatest
weapon of terrorists. When it becomes our greatest
weapon, too, what does that make us?
Notes 1. Information on
Maher Arar drawn from his website. 2. David
Cole, "Are we safer," New York Review of Books,
March 9, 2006. 3. Malcolm Gladwell,
Blink (New York: Little, Brown, 2005).
4. Hamish McDonald, "Cheney's tough talking
derails negotiations with North Korea," Sydney
Morning Herald, December 22, 2003. 5. These
quotes from Chris Abbott, Paul Rogers and John
Sloboda, Beyond Terror (London: Rider,
2007), pg 5. 6. US State Department, "Country
Reports on Terrorism 2006," April 30, 2007. 7.
World Bank Group, "World Development Indicators,"
2006. 8. See, for example, "Basic principles
on the use of force and firearms by law
enforcement officials," Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights, 1990. 9. See,
for instance, US State Department, Patterns of Global
Terrorism. 10. Miriam Pemberton and
Lawerence Korb, "A unified security budget for the
Untied States, FY 2008," Foreign Policy In Focus,
April 2007. 11. Christopher Hellman, "US:
Democrats expected to fuel military spending
spiral," Center for Arms Control and
Non-Proliferation, December 6, 2006. 12. US
State Department, "Country Reports on Terrorism
2006," April 30, 2007. 13. John Mueller, "Is
there still a terrorist threat?" Foreign Affairs,
September/October 2006. 14. Richard Vague,
"Terrorism: A brief for Americans," American
Respect, February 2007, pg 7.
John
Feffer is the co-director of Foreign Policy In
Focus.
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