Week 6 – War
War: War on Terror legitimate?
The war on terror is a common term used to describe the various military, economical and political actions by United States in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Within less than a month of the bombing of the New York World Trade Centre, the war in Afghanistan, and days later, Operation Active Endeavour, an attempt to establish naval power in the Mediterranean Sea, commenced. The following year, Operation Enduring Freedom started in various places like Philippines and Africa. And in 2003, the war in Iraq started.
The official objectives of the 2001 War on Terrorism are to counter terrorist threats, prevent terrorist acts and curb the influence of terrorist organizations (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011007-8.html), specifically targeting the Al Qaeda based in Iraq. United States pumped in money and resources as well as supplying most of the troops in the UN-led military campaigns across the world, from Africa to Europe, Middle East and Asia.
NATO also declared the World Trade Centre bombing to be an attack on NATO itself, and therefore an attack against all 19 NATO member countries. And NATO committed troops and ships and planes to invade Afghanistan.
However, many doubts have been raised about the legitimacy of this War on Terror.
The state holds monopoly of the legitimate use of violence. War can only be held between nations. In other words, only a nation can declare war on other nation. International law recognizes only two cases for a legitimate war. The first being when one nation is attacked by an aggressor; and the second when the United Nations Security Council acts as a body against a certain nation.
This is because only when the commander-in-chief of either army surrenders or be defeated, then will the war be declared to be over. With this war on terror, war is declared on terrorism, on an extremist militant ideology held by certain people across the world. First there is no specific nation-state that war is declared on, thus violating international law that legitimate law can only be declared on a nation. Secondly, war seems to be declared on an extremist ideology, which is almost impossible to determine its success, and therefore the conclusion of the war. Thus UN and NATO seems to have plunge the world into an indefinite war that has no way of determining its success; a war that is ‘legitimate’ and allows them to invade countries on the pretext of fighting terrorism. Examples being Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.
In this war against Terror, American President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act that seems to give the US government free reign to violate the constitutional rights of citizens. (http://www.amnestyusa.org/War_on_Terror/Civil_Rights/page.do?id=1108209&n1=3&n2=821&n3=838). This seems to contradict the intentions of this War on Terror. The War on Terror was showcased to be a war to defend the rights of the people of the world to live free from ‘terror’ and ‘acts of terrorism’, but the means by which US undertakes to fight this war seems to violate the rights of people to live free. The private communications of citizens in US can be intercepted indiscriminately. In 2004, FBI agents used provisions on this Act to wrongfully jail a Brandon Mayfield and search his home. Thus this Act seems to cast doubt on the true purpose and intentions of the War on Terror and puts the legitimacy of the war in doubt as well.
Also, the war on Terror was passed within a month of the bombing of World Trade Centre. Criticisms have been leveled that the war was passed based on the high-riding emotions of sympathy towards US, and also a fear of what could happen next. This puts into question if this war was rationally considered and given sufficient thought. This seem to cast the legitimacy of the war in doubt and casts the war as one that was declared in fear and emotions.
The War on Terrorism is a Lie
The war on terrorism is a lie because terrorism is not an enemy, it is a strategy.
Terrorism is a strategy employed by weaker states and non-state actors when fighting an asymmetric war against a more powerful opponent.
No state or non-state actor enters a conventional war against an enemy it has no chance of defeating conventionally.
Since the U.S. has declared that it will maintain military superiority without challenge, it has done everything in its power to do just that. The US defense budget for 2008 is some $700 billion. There is no single state or non-state actor on this planet that can defeat the United States in a conventional war.
Therefore, any single state or non-state actor that finds itself at war with the United States will be forced to fight an asymmetric war. That is, it will be forced to employ terrorism.
Therefore the war on terrorism is a war against anyone at war with the United States. Therefore the war on terrorism is a lie. It is not a war on terrorism at all, but a war to promote and defend US imperialism.