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Posted by: zanshin,
2008-07-31 07:53 |
Argument
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Temporary Error with Title of Argument
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Background and Context
Desirability: Desirable
Importance: High
Volatility: High
Likelihood: Medium
Confidence: High
The next administration, whether headed by Barack Obama or John McCain, should pronounce the war on terror over.
"This paradigm of the war on terror, connecting all kinds of armed resistance around the globe in one huge ideological framework, as a new ideology at a stage in history when most of the major ideologies are gone, does not reflect the facts on the ground."
-- Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norwegian Foreign Minister
From the article, Cohen: Scandinavia's scarred Mr. Dialogue by Roger Cohen, 2008-07-13 (Sunday), IHT (link)
Argument Tree
Vieuw in Silverlight
The next USA administration will pronounce the War On Terror over -- last updated Jan. 15, 2009
Current U.S. strategy against the terrorist group Al-Qaeda has not been successful ...
... in significantly undermining the group's capabilities.
Al-Qaeda has been involved in more terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, than it was during its prior history and the group's attacks since then have spanned an increasingly broader range of targets in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, according to researchers.
-- According a RAND Corporation study
>>The "war on terror" implied that the correct response was primarily military.
>>There is no battlefield solution to terrorism.
-- According to a RAND Corporation study
>>As General Petraeus said to me and others in Iraq, the coalition there could not kill its way out of the problems of insurgency and civil strife.
-- According to David Miliband, foreign secretary of Britain, in Guardian
>>Most terrorist groups end either because they join the political process, or because local police and intelligence efforts arrest or kill key members.
In most instances, military force is too blunt an instrument to be successful against terrorist groups.
-- According to a RAND Corporation study
>>The way the War On Terror has been framed has impoverished the West's ability to understand
The way the War On Terror has been framed (as an indefinite war that will last for decades) has impoverished the West's ability to understand the point of departure of the conflict and how we should deal with it
-- According to Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norwegian Foreign Minister
>>The War On Terror has been framed as an indefinite war that will last for decades
-- According to Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norwegian Foreign Minister
>>Using this phrase [= War on Terror] has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us.
The damage these three words have done -- a classic self-inflicted wound -- is infinitely greater than any wild dreams entertained by the fanatical perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks when they were plotting against us in distant Afghan caves. The phrase itself is meaningless. It defines neither a geographic context nor our presumed enemies. Terrorism is not an enemy but a technique of warfare -- political intimidation through the killing of unarmed non-combatants.
-- Zbigniew Brzezinski, in his article, Terrorized by 'War on Terror'
>>The phrase 'War on terror' had some merit.
>>The phrase 'War on terror' captured the gravity of the threats.
>>The phrase 'War on terror'captured the need for solidarity.
>>The phrase 'War on terror' captured the need to respond urgently - where necessary, with force.
>>The War On Terror has tended to limit scope for dialogue
-- According to Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norwegian Foreign Minister
>>The West is not talking to its enemies (in the War on Terror)
-- According to Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norwegian Foreign Minister
>>By not talking with its enemies the West has tended to give the upper hand to extremists on the other side
-- According to Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norwegian Foreign Minister
>>Moderates within the enemy side of the War On Terror lose ground if they cannot show tangible results
-- According to Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norwegian Foreign Minister
>>The War On Terror has tended to inflate the enemy
-- According to Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norwegian Foreign Minister
>>"The more we lump terrorist groups together and draw the battle lines as a simple binary struggle between moderates and extremists, or good and evil, the more we play into the hands of those seeking to unify groups with little in common"
-- David Miliband, foreign secretary of Britain, in Guardian
>>The War On Terror has tended to conflate diverse movements
-- According to Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norwegian Foreign Minister
>>Motivations and identities of terrorist groups are disparate.
>>The War On Terror has tended to polarize the world
-- According to Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norwegian Foreign Minister
>>The War On Terror has tended to isolate the United States
-- According to Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norwegian Foreign Minister
>>The United States should avoid the use of the term, "war on terror", and replace it with the term "counterterrorism".
>>Dropping the term, "war on terror" is more than a mere matter of semantics
"The term we use to describe our strategy toward terrorists is important, because it affects what kinds of forces you use."
-- Seth Jones, the study's lead author and a political scientist at RAND
>>Nearly every U.S. ally, including the United Kingdom and Australia, has stopped using "war on terror".
>>International terrorism does not exist
Instead of faking a “world war on terror”, the best way to reduce that kind of attacks [for instance 9/11] is through respect for international law and peaceful cooperation among countries and their citizens.
>>The entire idea of a "war on terror" is a misleading concept that has got this country [= USA] off on the wrong track. It is responsible for our invading Iraq under the wrong pretenses and for a decline of our political influence and military power that has no precedent.
-- George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management, interviewed by Judy Woodruff, Bloomberg TV
>>"Don’t expect to hear this from the White House any time soon, but the global war on terrorism conceived in the wake of 9/11 has effectively ended."
-- Andrew J. Bacevich, professor of history and international relations at Boston University, in his article, "Fighting the real fight"
>>The next administration needs to do better. The place to begin is with the candid recognition that the Global War on Terror has effectively ceased to exist.
-- Andrew Bacevich, professor of history and international relations at Boston University, in his article 'Expanding War, Contracting Meaning'
>>The War On Terror is not a war on terrorism at all but a justification for the USA to consolidate and extend its global supremacy
>>
References
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