[Peace-discuss] Defeating Terrorism - Theirs and Ours

[David Johnson]

I would add to this article the terrorism at home in the belly of the U.S.
corporate empire - Police murders of unarmed civilians ( now = 3 per day ),
mass surveillance and spying / infiltration of non-violent activist
organizations  and right wing racist Christian fundamentalist violent acts
of terrorism.

This is the REAL threat, not some dubious propaganda narrative concocted and
exaggerated by the corporate owned media which relies on all of it's
information from dubious U.S. government sources that have a well-documented
pattern of lies and deceit. 

 

 

 

Defeating Terrorism - Theirs and Ours



 <http://warisacrime.org/content/defeating-terrorism-theirs-and-ours>
http://warisacrime.org/content/defeating-terrorism-theirs-and-ours



By NicolasDavies - Posted on 27 November 2015

 

France and Russia's military responses to mass murders in Paris and Egypt
echo the United States' response to mass murders in New York, Washington and
Pennsylvania in 2001.  As Oxford University researcher
<http://www.democracynow.org/2015/11/17/lydia_wilson_what_i_discovered_from>
Lydia Wilson told Democracy Now on November 17th, Islamic State (IS) is
"seemingly delighted" by this warlike response to its latest atrocities.  

 

In several interviews, Lydia Wilson has cited Abu Bakr Naji's
<https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/abu-bakr-naji-the-management-of-
savagery-the-most-critical-stage-through-which-the-umma-will-pass.pdf> The
Management of Savagery as a "playbook" that IS appears to be following
closely.  Naji called for mass murders in foreign cities and tourist
destinations as part of a strategy to draw foreign powers into unwinnable
wars that would spread chaos, fuel jihadism and leave Muslim fundamentalist
groups in control of more and more of the Muslim world.

 

This builds on  <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HF08Ak01.html> Al
Qaeda's original strategy, which counted on an aggressive response to
September 11th to expose the iron fist inside the velvet glove of U.S. "soft
power" and the hollowness of the U.S. government's commitment to civil
liberties, human rights and the rule of law.  Al Qaeda astutely turned its
enemy's military superiority into a liability by provoking the U.S. to
unleash disastrous wars on Muslim countries.  The US invasions and
occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq and the concentration camp at Guantanamo
became the most valuable assets in Al Qaeda's propaganda and recruiting
campaigns, now complemented by the terror of drone strikes and bombing
campaigns in Syria and Iraq.

 

As the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Prince Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein of Jordan,
<http://www.cfr.org/human-rights/united-nations-global-human-rights/p37244?c
id=soc-facebook-in-prince_zeid_raad_al_hussein-otr-11615> told the Council
on Foreign Relations on November 16th, 

 

"...it seems that the defenses against chaos and bloodshed that states
erected at the close of the Second World War, the laws they wrote and swore
to abide by, the agreements and treaties they signed, are giving way to
increasing action bound by no principle or any foresight... Much of the
Middle East and North Africa is gripped in deadly conflict with constant,
now almost routine, violations of the norms that should protect civilians,
and even proxy warfare with greater powers engaged in combat rather than in
making peace."

 

To briefly take stock of 14 years of war, which our leaders launched and
continue to justify as a response to terrorism:

 

- The U.S. and its allies have conducted over
<https://consortiumnews.com/2015/07/06/americas-endless-air-wars/> 120,000
air strikes against seven countries, exploding fundamentalist jihadism from
its original base in Afghanistan to an active presence in all seven
countries and beyond.

 

- We have invaded and occupied Afghanistan for 14 years, Iraq for over 8
years, and destroyed Libya, Syria and Yemen for good measure.

 

- By conservative estimates,
<http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/body-count.pdf> U.S.-led wars have killed
about 1.6 million people, mostly civilians.  That is 500 times the number of
people killed by the original crimes in the U.S.  Disproportionate use of
force and geographic expansion of the conflict by our side has ensured an
endless proliferation of violence on all sides.

 

- War, occupation and human rights abuses have driven
<http://www.unhcr.org/558193896.html> 59.5 million people from their homes,
more than at any time since the Second World War.

 

- Since 2001, the U.S. has borrowed and spent $3.3 trillion in additional
military spending to pay for  <http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/16455>
the largest unilateral military build-up in history, but less than half the
extra funding has been spent on current wars.  (See Carl Conetta's 2010
paper,  <http://www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/1001PDABR20.pdf> "An Undisciplined
Defense", for more analysis of the Pentagon's "spending surge.")

 

When U.S. support for Muslim fundamentalist jihadis in Afghanistan led to
the most catastrophic blowback in our history on September 11th 2001, our
government declared a "global war on terror" against them.  But less than a
decade later, it once again began recruiting, training and arming Muslim
fundamentalists to fight in
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/world/africa/weapons-sent-to-libyan-rebel
s-with-us-approval-fell-into-islamist-hands.html?_r=0> Libya and
<http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/nato-vs-syria/> Syria.  The
U.S. also made
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/13/us-saudi-arabia-arms-deal> the
largest arms sale in history to Saudi Arabia, which is already ruled by a
dynasty of Muslim fundamentalists and whose role in the crimes of September
11th remains
<http://www.newsweek.com/saudi-arabia-911-george-w-bush-barack-obama-prince-
bandar-bin-sultan-bob-297170> a closely guarded secret.  It was only when IS
invaded Iraq in 2014 that the U.S. government was finally forced to rethink
its covert support for such groups in Syria.  It has yet to seriously
reconsider its alliances with their state sponsors: Saudi Arabia, Turkey,
Qatar and other Arab monarchies.

 

Throughout the past 14 years, whenever the fear of terrorism has temporarily
receded, our government has quickly redirected its threats and uses of
military force, covert operations and propaganda to a completely different
purpose: destabilizing and overthrowing a laundry-list of internationally
recognized governments, in Venezuela, Iraq, Honduras, Libya, Syria, Ukraine
and around the world.  In these operations, our government has never balked
at allying with violent groups whom it would be quick to condemn as
"terrorists" if they were on the other side.  We are being treated to a new
version of President Reagan's comical division of violent groups into
"terrorists" and "freedom fighters" based on their relationship to U.S.
policy, with patriotic Iraqis resisting the illegal invasion of their
country as "terrorists" and
<https://consortiumnews.com/2015/06/12/u-s-house-admits-nazi-role-in-ukraine
/> armed neo-Nazis in Ukraine as "protesters" and now part of a new
"National Guard." 

 

Each new U.S. military operation is justified as a response to some new
crisis, while the U.S. role in creating these crises in the first place is
obscured (with increasing difficulty) behind
<https://consortiumnews.com/2015/01/19/how-propaganda-conquers-democracy/>
funhouse mirrors of secrecy and propaganda.  This pattern of opportunistic
uses of force was exactly the strategy outlined by Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld within hours of the mass murders of September 11th 2001.
CBS News obtained a copy of Undersecretary Stephen Cambone's
<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/plans-for-iraq-attack-began-on-9-11/> notes
from a meeting amid the ruins of the Pentagon at 2:40 p.m. that day.
Cambone quoted Rumsfeld saying, "Judge whether good enough hit S.H. (Saddam
Hussein) at same time - not only UBL (Usama Bin Laden)... Go massive. Sweep
it all up. Things related and not."

 

In a recent article about  <http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/16455>
the record U.S. military budget, I explained that President Obama's annual
military budgets have (on average and after adjusting for inflation) been
higher than George W. Bush's, 60% higher than President Clinton's and 2-1/2
times what bipartisan experts recommended to the Senate Budget Committee at
the end of the Cold War.  The U.S. military is now more generously funded
than the rest of the ten largest militaries in the world combined.  

 

Investing our nation's wealth in military forces and deadly weapons and
deploying them all over the world is not just a tragic waste in terms of all
the unmet human needs in our country and the world.  It's dangerous.  By
building a global war machine designed to fight anybody anywhere, while
rejecting all legal and political constraints on how it may be used, our
leaders have set the stage for endless, unwinnable, global war.

 

As Prince Zeid suggested, our government has turned its back on the
legitimate infrastructure of collective security enshrined in the UN Charter
and international law, and reverted to something more primitive: the law of
the jungle or "might makes right."  By fostering the dangerous illusion that
illegal threats and uses of U.S. military force can replace the collective
will of humanity and the rule of international law as the ultimate arbiter
of international affairs, our leaders have set us on a collision course with
history.

 

When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, Russia and China remained on the
sidelines.  Their oil companies even bid for contracts on new oilfields in
Iraq, and Russia allowed the U.S. to ship war supplies through its territory
to Afghanistan.  In 2011, Russia and China both abstained from a UN Security
Council resolution for a "no fly zone" to protect civilians in Libya when
they could have simply vetoed it.

 

But when the U.S. and its allies abused that resolution to depose and
butcher Muammar Gaddafi and plunge Libya into chaos, then transitioned
quickly to launch an even bloodier proxy war in Syria, China and Russia
finally accepted that the U.S. war machine was really out of control.  The
U.S. was treating their efforts at appeasement as a green light for
aggression that would sooner or later threaten them directly.

 

In 2012, Russia
<http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/milex/milex_database> increased its
military budget by 15%, the largest annual increase since Vladimir Putin was
elected President in 2000.  After the destruction of Libya, Russia concluded
that it was essential to face down U.S. aggression and that the catastrophic
failures of U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya provided an opening
for Russian diplomacy to start pushing back.

 

The U.S. responded to Russia's support for the Syrian government by
<https://consortiumnews.com/2015/07/13/the-mess-that-nuland-made/>
engineering a coup against an even more strategic Russian ally in Ukraine.
The Western-backed coup threatened to roll NATO expansion right up to
Russia's border and sail NATO warships right into its most strategic naval
base at Sevastopol.  Russia responded by accepting Crimea's request to
restore its
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Crimea#Russian_Empire_.281783.E2.8
0.931917.29> 230-year-old ties with Russia (94% of Crimeans had already
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_independence_referendum,_1991>
voted for independence from Ukraine in 1991).  Russia also supported the
"Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics" in their resistance to the new
Western-backed government in Kiev.  U.S. allies in Europe initially
supported the U.S. campaign to isolate and sanction Russia over the chaos in
Ukraine, but now France and Germany are working with Russia and Ukraine to
implement the Minsk agreements, which are gradually
<http://www.euractiv.com/sections/global-europe/paris-summit-decides-ukraine
s-peace-process-run-next-year-318206> restoring peace to Ukraine.

 

Until recently, Russia played a deft diplomatic hand without being directly
drawn into combat in Syria or Ukraine.  But now Russia has joined the
free-for-all bombing of Syria.  IS has responded by blowing up a Russian
airliner.  Russia has in turn escalated its aerial bombardment.  Turkey has
shot down a Russian warplane.  It seems that Russia is being drawn into the
same escalating cycle of violence as the U.S. and its allies.  Much depends
on the results of the
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria_peace_talks_in_Vienna> diplomatic
process in Vienna and on the willingness of all the external powers involved
in the war in Syria to allow the people of Syria to decide their own
political future.  That includes the U.S. and its allies just as much as
Russia and Iran.

 

On a larger scale, it is vital for us to recognize that our country, by
authorizing the use of military force in 2001, became a party to this
open-ended conflict and shares the responsibility for escalating or
resolving it.  It is not responsible or legitimate to rely on demonizing our
enemies as a pretext for endlessly escalating an ill-defined war that has
killed far more civilians than combatants.

 

But by declaring that we are at war with "terror," "Muslim extremism,"
"associated forces" or whoever our leaders decide we're at war with from one
week to the next, our government has foreclosed many of the ways that wars
are usually brought to an end.  We cannot meet "terror" at the negotiating
table.  The international military competition to "destroy" IS , at whatever
cost in
<http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/01/28/kobane-isis-syria-pictures_n_656
3300.html> civilian death and destruction, is an irresistible chance for the
U.S., Russia, France and the U.K. to display and market their latest weapons
technology.  But it will not end the "war on terror."  Even a superficially
successful military campaign against IS in Syria and Iraq will instead
hasten the next mutation of jihadism and drive even more Muslims from around
the world into its ranks.

 

Even President Obama has acknowledged that there is no military way out of
the trap that he and other U.S. officials have unwittingly collaborated with
the "terrorists" to set for us.  Yet he still soldiers on blindly as if
there are no non-military alternatives either.  But there are and always
have been specific policy changes that our government could make if it was
serious about ending this horrific cycle of violence:

 

- Repeal the 2001 and 2002 Congressional Authorizations for the Use of
Military Force, which have become blank checks for endless war.
Representatives Lee (D), Amash (R) and Massie (R) have introduced bills in
Congress to do that: HR 1303 (to repeal the 2001 AUMF) and HR 1304 (to
repeal the 2002 AUMF).

 

- Close the U.S. concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Every prisoner
must either be released or be granted a free and fair trial in a real court.

 

- Stop threatening, bombing and attacking Muslim countries - and other ones
too. 

 

-  Stop destabilizing and overthrowing internationally-recognized
governments.

 

- End drone strikes and comply with long-standing e
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_11905> xecutive orders
prohibiting assassination as an instrument of U.S. policy.

 

- Shut down the
<http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line>
"rat-line" of U.S. weapons to jihadi groups everywhere.

 

- Enforce  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_Export_Control_Act> existing
U.S. laws that prohibit arms sales to governments that commit war crimes or
human rights abuses, with no exceptions for U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia,
Israel or Iraq.

 

- Stop using the US veto to
<http://www.wrmea.org/2005-may-june/an-updated-list-of-vetoes-cast-by-the-un
ited-states-to-shield-israel-from-criticism-by-the-u.n.-security-council.htm
l> block majority decisions of the UN Security Council on Israel and
Palestine.

 

- Publicly recommit to full compliance with the UN Charter, the Geneva
Conventions and the rule of international law.

 

- Restore command accountability under U.S. law for war crimes ordered or
sanctioned by senior U.S. military and civilian officials.

 

If these steps seem radical or "politically impossible," that is only a
measure of how far our country has strayed from the basic standards of
international behavior that we and other countries are committed to.  But if
our government refuses to take such steps, then we must recognize that we
share the responsibility for perpetuating the horrors of this conflict.  

 

As the late historian and former US Air Force bombardier Howard Zinn wrote
in  <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/books/review/Letters-t-1.html> a
letter to the New York Times in 2007, "The terrorism of the suicide bomber
and the terrorism of aerial bombardment are indeed morally equivalent.  To
say otherwise (as either side might) is to give one moral superiority over
the other, and thus serve to perpetuate the horrors of our time."

 

On the other hand, if we can restore some legitimacy to U.S. policy, we can
begin to regain the moral and legal ground from which to respond effectively
to terrorism.  If or when there is another mass murder like the ones in the
U.S. in 2001 or the recent ones in Egypt, Lebanon and France, we must
respond to it as a heinous crime rather than as an act of war, as former
Nuremberg prosecutor
<http://www.benferencz.org/2000-2004.html#crimesagainsthumanity> Benjamin
Ferencz insisted in the aftermath of September 11th.  Those responsible must
be identified, pursued, arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
law, with only as much help from the military as is needed to bring them to
justice.  But as Ben Ferencz warned in 2001, their crimes must not be
allowed to become a pretext for wreaking misdirected vengeance on other
countries and innocent lives.  

 

This is how we will defeat terrorism - theirs and ours.

 

Nicolas J S Davies is the author of Blood On Our Hands: the American
Invasion and Destruction of Iraq and of the chapter on "Obama At War" in
Grading the 44th President: A Report Card on Barack Obama's First Term as a
Progressive Leader. 

 

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