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Today's
Stories
March 1,
2007
Laura Carlsen
Return
to Sender: Migrants as Globalization's Junk Mail
February
28, 2007
Peter Linebaugh
An
Amazing Disgrace
Tao Ruspoli
A Conversation with Francisco Letelier
China Hand
The Shanghai Crash: Take the Money and Run
Marjorie Cohn
Why the Boumediene Case on Gitmo Detainees and Habeas Corpus
Was Wrongly Decided
Sarah Olson
Is Lt. Watada an Isolated Case of Military Dissent?
Susan Van Haitsma
Mark Wilkerson: Standing for a Soldier's Right to Conscience
Nicole Colson
License to Torture
Harvey Wasserman
The Sham of Nuclear Power
William S. Lind
The Non-Thinking Enemy
Nicola Nasser
US Turnabout?: Engagement and Confrontation in the Middle East
Website of the Day
Andrew Cockburn on Rumsfeld
February
27, 2007
Tariq Ali
The
Khyber Impasse: the Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Tom Barry
America's
Crusaders: Santorum and Lieberman
Uri Avnery
The Next War
Antonia Juhasz / Raed Jarrar
Oil Grab: the Secret Scheme to Split Iraq
Jeff Nygaard
Howard Hunt and the National Memory System
Hugh O'Shaughnessy
Grenada: an Invasion Revisited
Mitchell Kaidy
Israel's Cluster Bombs: Made in USA, Ground-Tested in Lebanon
Carl Finamore
Airline Bankruptcies, Mergers and Profits
Anne McElroy
Dachel
The Really Big Lie About Autism
Ramzy Baroud
Who is Really in Control?
Andrew Rouse
The Queen, Her Apothecary and the War on Iraq
Website of the Day
New York City Skyline
February
26, 2007
Franklin Lamb
US
Israel Lobby Targets Lebanon's Jihad al-Bina
Bill Quigley
The
Right to Return to New Orleans
Greg Moses
Suzi Hazahza in Haskell Hell
Col. Dan Smith
Calling All Carriers
Ralph Nader
The Bush Administration is a Threat to Our National Security
Paul Buchheit
The Income Gap
Jeff Leys
How Democrats Are Buying the Iraq War
Dave Zirin
Bojangling for Bigots: an Open Letter to Jason Whitlock
Mike Whitney
Doomsday Dick and the Plague of Frogs
Michael Dickinson
Free Kareem Amer!
Website of the Day
Beware the Chickenhawks!
February
24 / 25, 2007
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Frightening
Tales of Endangered Species
R. T. Naylor
Inside Islamic Charity
Gary Leupp
AIPAC Demands "Action" on Iran
Saul Landau
Modern Day Miracle: Rev. Haggard Cured! Thank You, Jesus!
Ron Jacobs
Missile Defense Redux
Jeffrey Blankfort
A Debate on the Israel Lobby
Chris Sands
Afghanistan in Winter: Where Death Comes Cheap
Gary Freeman
The N-Word and Black History Month
Larry Portis
Zionism and the United States: the Cultural Connection
P. Sainath
Two Million People in "Maximum Distress"
Lee Sustar
What Next for the Immigrants' Rights Movement?
Kevin Wehr
Liberal vs. Radical Enviros: the Thrill isn't Gone, It's Just
Moved
Ken Couesbouc
The African Card
Soffiyah Elijah
FBI Hunting Dead Panthers: Can John Bowman Ever Rest in Peace?
Kathlyn Stone
Iraqi Labor vs. Big Oil
Dave Lindorff
Breaking the Dam in Olympia
Jason Kunin
Criticizing Israel is Not an Act of Bigotry
Kevin Zeese
Can Hillary be Trusted?
Remi Kanazi
All Roads Lead to Checkpoints
Missy Beattie
Five Words That Change Lives
Poets' Basement
Davies, Holt and Rodriguez
Website of the Weekend
Caught on Tape: an Anti-War Movement Finding Its Feet?
February
23, 2007
Franklin Spinney
Top
Gun vs. the Axis of Evil: Is This What We Have Become?
Jonathan Cook
Watching
the Checkpoints
Patrick Cockburn
The True Extent of Britain's Failure in Basra
Kathy Kelly
Do Something Good
Chris Dols
Islamophobia at Urban Outfiters: the Case for Keffiyehs
Evelyn Pringle
The Neurontin Suicides: Risks Kept Hidden for Years
Stephen Pearcy
If Bush is a War Criminal, What About the Troops?
Dan Brook
Making Poverty History
Yifat Susskind
Iraqi Police Commit Rapes
Website of
the Day
A Citizens Arrest of Patty Murray
February
22, 2007
Robert Fantina
Repeating
History
Tariq Ali
Prodi's Soap Operatic Fall: Neoliberalism and War in Italy
Michael Shank
An Interview with Noam Chomsky on Iran, Iraq, the Democrats and
Climate Change
John Ross
Calderon's War on Drugs
Christopher Brauchli
Stockcars on Dope: How NASCAR and the Tour de France are Bring
the World Together
Cindy Litman
Paying for the Damage Done to Iraq
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Mr. Jefferson's Inheritors: Caution, Calculation and Cold Feet
Kevin Zeese
Finally, a Populist Antiwar Candidate for President
Aseem Shrivastava
The New Indian Way?: a Developer's Model of Development
Reza Fiyouzat
A Letter to the Israeli People: We are All Led by Mad Men
Illinois Students Against the
War
Why We Protested at Obama's Speech
Website of
the Day
An Interview with Mike Gravel
February
21, 2007
Maass / St.
Clair
The
Clintons: the Art of Politics Without Conscience
Sharon Smith
Inside
the Imperial Budget
Greg Moses
Showdown Over Texas Immigrant Prisons
Margaret Kimberly
America the Stupid
Ralph Nader
Making Cancer Cool: Tobacco and Hollywood
Nicola Nasser
Evasive Diplomacy: Bush Adm. Shuns Middle East Peace Talks
Mike Whitney
The Second Great Depression
Tao Ruspoli
Revolutionary But Gangsta: a Conversation with Stic.Man of Dead
Prez
Byeong Jeongpil
Beyond the "Protection Facility",
Another Prison
Corporate Crime
Reporter
Why Hillary, Obama and Edwards Oppose Single-Payer Health Care
Josh Mahan
The Lost Art of Shattuck: a Good, Old-Fashioned Drinking Story
Website of
the Day
Time to Free the Puerto Rican Nationalists
February
20, 2007
Sgt. Martin
Smith
Structured
Cruelty: Learning to be a Lean, Mean Killing Machine
Werther
How
to be a Washington Expert
Corporate Crime Reporter
Exposing SAIC
Carl G. Estabrook
Common Sense About the Recent Past
China Hand
Setting Sun: The Diverging US-Japan Relationship
Joshua Frank
Cleaning Up Exxon's Greenpoint Oil Spill
Megan Boler
The Daily Show and Political Activism
John Feffer
People Power vs. Military Power in East Asia
Daryll E. Ray
What's Inside the New Farm Bill
Alan Gregory
Midwest Wolves Fall Prey to Slob Hunters' PR Scam
Website of the Day
"Not a Target Rich Environment?"
February
19, 2007
Paul Craig
Roberts
Economists
in Denial: Blind to the Consequences of Offshoring
Gary Leupp
"A Genocidal, Suicidal Nation:" Mitt Romney Joins Iran's
Hysterical Accusers
Ron Jacobs
The Mecca Agreements: the Future Remains Bleak
Michael F.
Brown
The Peace Process Industry
Robert Jensen
Liberal Icons and War: Bi-Partisan Empire-Building
Roger Burbach
Ecuador Stands Up to US
Monica Benderman
America, Where Are You Now?
Sonja Karkar
Apocalyptic Archaeology: Israel's Provocations Threaten Jerusalem
John Walsh
Some Good News from Beantown
Talli Nauman
Colorado Delta Blues: Challenging the Law of the River
Website of the Day
"The Best Place to be in Town"
Feburary
17 / 18, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Sold
to Mr. Gordon, Another Bridge!
Tao Ruspoli
CounterViews: a Conversation with Patrick Cockburn, Part Two
Gary Leupp
Iran: A Chronology of Disinformation
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Dark Mesas in an Ancient Light
Roger Morris
The Undertaker's Tally: the Tragedy of Donald Rumsfeld
Uri Avnery
Facing Mecca
James Brooks
Palestinians and the "Diplomatic Horizon"
Sen. Russell
Feingold
Congress Must Defund the Iraq War
Linn Washington, Jr.
"Death Row is a Web That Catches Only the Poor"
Michele Brand
Iran: the Proxy War?
Fred Gardner
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Music and Basketball in the Harlem Renaissance
Mitchel Cohen
Storming the Pentagon: Lessons from 1967
Mike Ferner
Democrats Keep Ohio Refugee Free: "No Iraqis in Our Backyards!"
David Swanson
Memo to Don Young: What Lincoln Really Said
P. Sainath
In the Theater of the Jungle Belt
Mike Stark
GoreAid: Gore Plans Concert with Musicians He and Tipper Betrayed
in the 80s
Missy Beattie
The Object of My Disaffection
Jonathan Franklin
Carnival: Where Dance is Hope
Website of the Weekend
The Godfather and the Tenor: "It's a Man's World"
February 16, 2007
Marc Levy
Turning
Point: Veterans' Voices Trigger Response
Andrew Cockburn
In Iraq, Anyone Can Make a Bomb
Glen Ford
Powell, Rice and Obama: Putting Black Faces on Imperial Aggression
Greg Moses
The Terror of Suzi Hazahza: Why Her Family Must Be Freed
Ron Jacobs
Marching on the Pentagon: Then and Now
John W. Farley
Hook, Line and Sinker: The Press and Stephen Hadley
James Marc Leas
Vermont Legislature Says: "Bring Them Home Now!"
Tim Rinne
The Most Dangerous Place on the Face of the Earth?: StratCom
and the Coming War on Iran
Albert Wan
Star-Cross'd Lovers?: The Strange Romance of Hillary and David
Brooks
Website of
the Day
Did Wal-Mart Murder Tweety Bird?
February 15, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Who
is Muqtada al-Sadr?
Saul Landau
How
to Obsess Your Enemies
Stephen Lendman
The Rules of Imperial Management
Evelyn Pringle
More Zyprexa Postcards from the Edge
Michael Simmons
Is the Joke Over?: an Evening with Ralph Steadman
Kevin Zeese
A Congressional Kabuki Show
Dave Lindorff
The Co-Dependent Congress
Pete Shanks
They Want You to Eat Cloned Meat--And They Don't Want You to
Know It
Peter Rost
The Michelle Manhart Affair: the Air Force Listens!
Lenni Brenner
/ Gilad Atzmon
An Exchange
Website of the Day
Barack Obama vs. Huey P. Newton
February
14, 2007
Tao Ruspoli
CounterViews:
A Conversation with Patrick Cockburn
Dick J. Reavis
War
Without a Name
Margaret Kimberly
Medical Apartheid in America
Christopher Brauchli
The Perils of Charity: You Can be Prosecuted for Funding Terror
Even If the Designation of the Group as a Terrorist Organization
was Wrong!
Paul Craig
Roberts
Cracks in the Pentagon
John Ross
The Plot Against Mexican Corn
Michael F.
Brown
The Democrats and Palestine: New Chairman, Old Rules
Dave Lindorff
The Press Bites, Again: a Word of Caution on Those Iranian Weapons
J.L. Chestunut,
Jr.
Texas-style Injustice in Black and White
Don Fitz
Hybrids, Biofuels and Other False Idols
Michael Donnelly
Give Love, Give Life
Dr. Susan Block
The Chemistry of Love
Website of
the Day
Code Pink Drops By Hillary's Office
February
13, 2007
Uri Avnery
Three
Provocations: the Method in the Madness
Patrick Cockburn
Targeting Tehran
Ralph Nader
When Wall Street Whines (You Know They're Making a Killing)
Marjorie Cohn
Fool Us Twice? From Iraq to Iran
Col. Dan Smith
Iran Bashing Goes Prime Time
Col. Douglas
MacGreagor
Empty Vessels: Gen. Patraeus and Other Hollow Men
Thomas Power
Coal Ambivalence: Mining Montana
Nicola Nasser
The Politics of Archaeology in Jerusalem
David Swanson
Iran War Talking Points
Columbia Coalition
Against the War
Why We Are Striking
Website of the Day
Our Friends at Antiwar.com Need Your Help
February
12, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Scapegoating
Iran
Paul Craig
Roberts
How the World Can Stop Bush: Dump the Dollar!
John Walsh
A Splintered Antiwar Movement: Nader and Libertarians Not Welcome
Dr. John Carroll,
MD
What Next for Haiti's Cite Soliel?: a Journey Through the World's
Most Miserable Slum
Greg Moses
An Outrageously Sickening Immigration Policy
Nicole Colson
The Frame-Up That Fell Apart: Jury See Through Another Botched
Federal "Terrorism" Case
Dave Lindorff
Acting in Bad Feith: Inappropriate
Behavior and Impeachment
Ray McGovern
The Kervorkian Administration: Are Bush and Cheney the Biggest
Threats to the Existence of Israel?
Doug Giebel
Rampant Cyncism
David Swanson
Twisted: Sex and Torture in America
Website of the Day
The Texas Model: Executing Women in Iraq
February
10 /11, 2007
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
Will
They Nuke Iran?
Gabriel Kolko
Israel, Iran and the Bush Administration
Patrick Cockburn
Now
It's War on the Shia
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Till the Cows Come Home: How the West was Eaten
Kevin Alexander Gray
Barack Obama: Not a Bold Bone in His Body
M. Shahid Alam
The Pacification of Islam
Greg Moses
The Words of Mohammad: an 11 Year-Old Prisoner
Paul Craig
Roberts
Brzezinski's
Damning Indictment
George Ciccariello-Maher
Coups and Democracy in Venezuela
Kevin Zeese
"You Can't Oppose the War and Fund the War:" a Conversation
with Anthony Arnove
Turner / Kim
The World's Factory: China's Filthiest Export
George Duke
Has Jazz Lost Its African-American Core?
Walter Brasch
A Dream Still Unfulfilled: America Remains Divided
Shepherd Bliss
Veterans' Love Story
Missy Beattie
Fear and Diversions: Anna Nicole, Wolf Blitzer and the Missing
Body Count in Iraq
Peter Harley
Mr. Hyde and Uncle Sam: Reading Stevenson in an Age of Shock
and Awe
Pat Wolff
Oprah's Strange Endorsement of "The Secret"
Poets' Basement
Davies, Holt, Engel and Louise
Website of the Day
The 25 Most Corrupt Members of Bush Administration
February 9, 2007
Conn Hallinan
The
Najaf Massacre: an Annotated Fable
Gary Leupp
Charging
Iran with "Genocide" Before Nuking It
Lee Sustar
An Interview with Patrick Cockburn
Nikolas Kozloff
Bombing Venezuela's Indians
Newton Garver
Politics
and Apartheid
Yitzhak Laor
Under the Steamroller
Dave Lindorff
Truth or Consequences: Some Questions for Bush
David Swanson
The Politics of Self-Congratulation: Democrats Change Gas, Claim
It's a New Car
Website of the Day
Why Corporate Social Responsibility is Not Working for Workers
February
8, 2007
John V. Walsh
Filibuster
to End the War Now!
Marjorie Cohn
Watada Beats Government
Trish Schuh
The Salvador Option in Beirut
Ron Jacobs
The Case of the San Francisco 8
Laura Carlsen
Mexico at Davos: the Split with Latin America Widens
Ramzy Baroud
Countdown for Iran
Brenda Norrell
"Leave It in the Ground": Indigenous Peoples Call for
Global Ban on Uranium Mining
Bryan Farrell
The Splinter and the Beam: Violence in the Eye of the Beholder
Judith Scherr
BP Beds Down with Cal-Berkeley
Website of
the Day
Peace TV
February
7, 2007
Daniel Wolff
"The
Road Home is a Joke": Playing Politics with the Recovery
of New Orleans
Tao Ruspoli
CounterViews:
A Conversation with Oliver Stone on Art, Politics and the Future
of Cinema in Bush's America
Tony Swindell
The
Looming Shadow of Nuremberg
Sharon Smith
Why Protest Matters
Ken Couesbouc
Delenda Est Baghdad: Why Republics End Up as Empires
Jeff Cohen
Jonah
Goldberg's Gambling Debt
Col. Dan Smith
The Self-Destructive Logic of War
Tom Kerr
McCain to Wounded Soldiers: When Words Fail Fundamentally
Joshua Frank
The Democrats and Iran
Adam Elkus
Surging Right Into Bin Laden's Hands
Stephen Fleischman
The Good News About War on Iran
Website of
the Day
Vote Vets: Battling Escalation
February
6, 2007
Diana Johnstone
Frenzy
in France Over Iranian Threat
Gregory Wilpert
Did Chavez Over-reach?: Venezuela's Enabling Law Could Enable
Opposition
Norman Solomon
A Kangaroo Court Martial: Making an Example of Ehren Watada
Dave Lindorff
Borat Goes to Washington: Don't Experiment with the Economy?
William Blum
Space Cowboys: Full Spectrum Dominance
Mike Ferner
War Opponents Occupy Congressional Offices
CP News Service
Nader's CNN Interview: "Hillary's a Panderer and a Flatterer"
Evelyn Pringle
Eli Lilly and Zyprexa: Even the Insurance Companies are Bailing
Christopher Brauchli
Corporate Advice from the Office of Detainee Affairs
Alan Cabal
How Charles Manson Kept Me Out of Vietnam
Website of the Day
Free Josh Wolf: the Longest Jailed Journalist in US History
February 5, 2007
Dave Zirin
Super
Bore: When Hawks Cry
Uri Avnery
The
Fatal Kiss: Wars and Scandals
Ron Jacobs
The
Looming War on Iran: It's Not About Democracy
Paul Craig Roberts
The Real Failed States
Newton Garver
Bush
and the Old Hands: Decider vs. Negotiator
Bruce Anderson
The Genocidal Namesake of the Hastings School of Law
Saul Landau
The Golden Globes After a Mud Bath
Ralph Nader
The Good Fight of Molly Ivins
James T. Phillips
Road Outrageous: Tailgating and Iraq
Mike Whitney
Quarantine USA: Bird Flu Panic and Profiteering
Kenneth Rexroth
Clowns and Blood-Drinking Perverts: Imperial History According
to Tacitus
Website of the Day
Richard Thompson's Anti-War Song: "'Dad's Gonna Kill Me"
February 3 /4, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Who
Can Stop the War?
Tao Ruspoli
CounterViews: a Conversation with Dr. Susan Block on Sex, Censorship
and Liberation
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The Thrill is Gone: the Withering of the American Environmental
Movement
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqis
on the Run
P. Sainath
They Take the Early Train
Sen. Russell Feingold
A Symbol of a Timid Congress
Diane Christian
Dying Well: Why Killing Saddam Backfired on Bush
Brian Cloughley
Space Missiles Away!: the Irony of Bush's Indignation
Diana Barahona
How to Turn a Priest into a Cannibal: US Reporting on the Coup
in Haiti
Timothy J. Freeman
The Iraq War Hits Hawai'i: the Stryker Brigade and the Watada
Case
Conn Hallinan
The Vishnu Strategy
John Ross
Felipe's First Fifty Days
Greg Moses
The Government Blinks: Freedom for the Ibrahim Family
Missy Beattie
No More Rebukes or Non-Binding Resolutions
Joshua Frank
Unsafe in Any Seas: Cruising with Ralph Nader?
Evelyn Pringle
"These Drugs are Poison to Some People"
Stephen Fleischman
Let's Hear It for Chuck Hagel!
Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
Iraq in Fragments
Poets' Basement
Holt, Engel, Ford and Saavedra
Website of the Day
Flamenco Dali
February 2, 2007
Chris Kutalik
The
Meanest Industry
R. Gibson /
E. W. Ross
Cutting the Schools-to-War Pipeline
Pam Martens
America's "Money Honey" as Corporate Matchmaker: Maria
Bartiromo and the Co-Branding of CNBC and Citigroup
John Feffer
Picturing the President
Daryll E. Ray
Why the Family Farm is Good for Rural America
Ronald Bruce
St. John
Apartheid By Any Other Name
Mitchel Cohen
Listen Gore: Some Inconvenient Truths About the Politics of Environmental
Crisis
Website of
the Day
The Real Issue is Empire
February 1, 2007
Diane Farsetta
An
Army Thousands More: How PR Firms and Major Media Military Recruiters
Marjorie Cohn
Bush
Targets Iran: Cruise Missile Diplomacy
Mark Scaramella
Our
Founding War Profiteers
Ranni Amiri
Senator Prejudice: the Day Joe Biden Threatened to Kick My Ass
Christopher Ketcham
Die, TV!
Winston Warfield
Art Panic Hits Boston!
Corporate Crime Reporter
Jailing the Artists, Not the Executives: the Great Boston Art
Panic, Turner Broadcasting and the AG Who Won't Pursue Corporate
Crime
Thomas P. Healy
Adios Molly Ivins: Populist Journalism and Never Dull
Website of the Dau
The Ordeal of Gary Tyler
January
31, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Waco
of Iraq?: US "Victory" Cult Leader was a "Massacre"
Jean Bricmont
What
is the Decisive "Clash" of Our Time?
Tao Ruspoli
CounterViews: a Conversation with Dr. Susan Block on Sex, Politics
and Liberation
James T. Phillips
Flashbacks de Jour: Photographing War
William Johnson
Worker Reistance at Smithfield Foods
Tim Wilkinson
A Hawk in Drag: Dershowitz and the Iraq War
Evelyn Pringle
The Judge, the Reporter and the Secret Zyprexa Documents
Joshua Frank
What America Really Needs to Hear
Ramzy Baroud
Shameless in Gaza
Mickey Z.
Nader Still in the Crosshairs
Website of the Day
What's Goin' On?
|
March
1, 2007
"It Produces
More Wicked Men Than It Takes Away"
The
War on Terror and the Terror of War
By BRENT BOWDEN
The world it is at war: an open ended
'War on terrorism'. Leaders across the world have repeated the
declaration ad nauseam. We have been told just as many times
that it is a 'war like no other'. The stakes are high. If Usama
Bin Laden is to be believed it is the 'Third World War'; for
George W. Bush the war is nothing less than a 'fight for civilization'.
As to whether the terrorist attacks on the United States on September
11, 2001 were in fact an act of war demanding a military response,
or a criminal act demanding a legal and justice based response
is open to question and debate. Secretary of State Colin Powell's
initial response suggests that he regarded it more in terms of
a crime than an act of war: 'you can be sure that America will
deal with this tragedy in a way that brings those responsible
to justice', he is reputed to have said. But President Bush had
other ideas, later telling journalist Bob Woodward that his immediate
reaction was: 'They had declared war on us, and I made up my
mind at that moment that we were going to war'. And thus, we
are at war.
The casting of the war on terrorism as a war fought on behalf
of or for Civilization against some less-than-civilized Other--terrorists
and their cohorts--is a significant point that cannot be allowed
to pass unexamined. The image being generated and marketed here
is one of a war between the civilized defenders of everything
that Civilization represents and the barbarous terrorists who
oppose it and want to tear it down. Right or wrong this image
is not exactly new, and thus the war on terror is not exactly
a war like no other. Rather, history and precedents have a lot
to tell us about the present and the conducting of this war on
terror.
Throughout much of organized human history the peoples, societies
and states of our world have been hierarchically divided on the
basis of their approximation to the ideal of civilization. The
most advanced collectives of peoples, civilized states, sit at
the apex of civilizational hierarchy, those at the polar opposite
are said to be not far removed from the state of nature. Somewhere
in between these two poles at various stages of human and social
development are barbarians and even less developed savage peoples.
Along with a capacity for socio-political organization and self-government,
means of warfare employed in the crucible of war have long been
regarded as key markers of civilization--or the absence thereof.
Civilized societies, it is said, adhere to the generally accepted
principles of international law, including the laws of war. By
their very nature barbarians and savages are deemed incapable
of abiding by such laws. While terrorists might be capable, they
are unwilling to do so. In this respect they are something akin
to modern day savages; at least in terms of their problematic
place in the international system and international law. Just
what I mean by modern-day savages will be outlined shortly, but
it is not the pejorative term that is sloppily bandied about
in much of the rhetoric that has accompanied the declarations
of the war on terrorism.
Even prior to September 11, 2001, terrorism was regarded as some
form of 'new barbarism' or contemporary 'savage war'. The military
historian, Everett Wheeler, suggests that the 'shock of modern
terrorism resembles the outrage of seventeenth- or eighteenth-century
European regulars in North America when ambushed by Indians who
ignored the European rules of the game'. This comparison urges
us to recall the 'military horizon', a figurative line drawn
in the sand to distinguish 'civilized' European warfare, which
was supposedly organized, constrained, and chivalrous, from the
chaotic nature of the undisciplined and opportunistic 'primitive'
warfare practiced by savages and barbarians.
In the tradition of the savage war thesis, the contention is
that conventional warfare requires, above all else, open battle
and observance of the rules of war. Terrorism on the other hand,
is thought akin to primitive warfare in that the perpetrators
either lack or shun a set of values. Like the warfare attributed
to the savages and barbarians found in the Americas, Australasia,
Africa, Asia, the Middle-East, and even Eurasia, terrorists avoid
open confrontation with regular armed forces, relying instead
on primitive warfare tactics such as hit-and-run surprise attacks
and deception.
In respect to the civilized-savage divide, Wheeler suggests that
in the Western tradition of warfare there is some tension between
these rival norms or modes of war-making. But the blanket aerial
bombing of Dresden and the dropping of Atomic bombs on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, to take just two examples--which include the targeting
of civilians--would indicate that this tension is very close
to the surface. Or perhaps more accurately, it further exposes
and undermines the much cherished myth of Western chivalry. It
also relies on the problematic exclusion of Europe's fascists
and Nazis from the Western camp. If there is a tension in the
Western mindset when it comes to choosing between the rival norms
of warfare, the nature of the combatants arrayed against it is
a key determining factor.
I will return to the savage war thesis momentarily, but first
I want to address the not altogether unrelated notion that the
war on terrorism is a war like no other. When political and military
leaders struggle to demonstrate the progress they claim is being
made in the war on terror and that 'we are winning the war',
more often than not they resort to the tired but trusted explanation:
'It is a war like no other'. In one sense they are right; it
is a war like no other. But every war is a war like no other.
At the same time, in a strange way every war is like every other
war (in some respects at least). In recalling the military horizon
and the European conquest of savage peoples around the globe,
in the fighting of the war on terror there are some precedents
and parallels in the characterization of combatants from conflicts
past.
An equally important question is: Is the war on terrorism really
a war at all? If we follow the widely acknowledged criteria set
out by the eighteenth-century Swiss philosopher, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, then it is probably not a true war. Rousseau wrote:
'War is not a relation between men, but between states; in war
individuals are enemies wholly by chance, not as men, not even
as citizens, but only as soldiers; not as members of their country,
but only as its defenders'. In essence, a state's enemies can
only be other states, likewise its friends and allies. But Rousseau's
account seems a bit dated in a time of an open-ended war on terrorism
in which one of the protagonists is not a state. Despite appearances
and the various claims and counter-claims being made, this is
far from a clear-cut issue, there is more gray than black and
white. The war on terror is being fought on the ground; it is
being fought in Afghanistan, but no longer against Afghanistan.
It is being fought in Iraq, but not necessarily against Iraq
(if there is still such a country or nation). And from time to
time it is being fought in London, and Madrid, and Bali, and
wherever else the terrorists choose to turn into a battlefield.
According to Wheeler terrorism should be recognized as a form
of warfare, albeit a primitive form of warfare with close connections
to guerilla modes of war. The question of whether terrorism and
the concomitant war on terror are truly a war is an important
one that goes right to the heart of the legal status of the combatants
and the obligations imposed upon them. The issue of the legal
status of combatants is in turn directly relevant to the connection
of terrorism and guerilla warfare with primitive warfare. From
Ancient Greece and Rome onwards soldiers have been legally defined
enemies accorded certain rights and protection. Those recently
adjudged 'enemy combatants', on the other hand, find themselves
in a kind of legal Neverland, first at Camp X-Ray and then Camp
Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; devoid of the legal rights and
privileges afforded prisoners of war.
One of the critical questions arising out of the savage war thesis
is one that was posed by the American jurist Quincy Wright in
the wake of the French bombardment of Damascus in October 1925.
Wright asked: 'Does international law require the application
of laws of war to people of a different civilization?' Wright
firmly believed so, despite the fact that the Ancient Greeks
thought the rules of war inapplicable to barbarians, or that
the Israelites are known to have been especially ruthless in
warring with certain enemy tribes, or that medieval Christendom
acted in a similar manner in wars with infidels.
On the other side of the argument, Eldridge Colby, a Captain
in the United States Army, thought Wright missed a critical point;
that civilizational differences exist. They are based, he argued,
'on a difference in methods of waging war and on different doctrines
of decency in war. When combatants and non-combatants are practically
identical among a people, and savage or semi-savage peoples take
advantage of this identity to effect ruses, surprises, and massacres
on the "regular" enemies, commanders must attack their
problems in entirely different ways from those in which they
proceed against Western peoples'. Setting aside the dubious point
being made here, just one of the obvious problems with this line
of argument is: how can one knowingly take advantage of something
they do not know exists? And even if they do know--as today's
terrorists do--does this give the other party the right to turn
their back on a set of laws they claim to abide by and which
are held up as a marker of their civilization. Colby concluded
that as 'devastation and annihilation' is the principal method
of warfare of savage tribes, civilized Westerners are justified
in adopting 'more brutal' methods as they go about devastating
and annihilating the uncivilized hordes.
In an address to the nation from Fort Bragg in North Carolina
on June 28, 2005, George W. Bush further underlined the notion
that tactics employed by parties to a conflict reflect their
degree of civility: the civilized supposedly chivalrous and noble;
the uncivilized barbarous and cowardly. President Bush declared:
'We see the nature of the enemy in terrorists who exploded car
bombs along a busy shopping street in Baghdad, including one
outside a mosque. We see the nature of the enemy in terrorists
who sent a suicide bomber to a teaching hospital in Mosul. We
see the nature of the enemy in terrorists who behead civilian
hostages and broadcast their atrocities for the world to see.
These are savage acts of violence'.
Bush went on to proclaim: 'We're fighting against men with blind
hatred--and armed with lethal weapons--who are capable of any
atrocity'. These modern savages, like the Amerindians and the
Viet Cong before them, 'wear no uniform; they respect no laws
of warfare or morality'. When combined with the mantra that the
war on terror is a 'war like no other' against an enemy that
is 'pure evil' and refuses to 'fight by the rules', the inference
is that this war demands tactics and means of warfare that are
necessarily more brutal than might otherwise be employed, possibly
even torture.
Terrorists have indeed committed atrocious and criminal acts.
As have those fighting the war on terrorism. For the former,
atrocities and acts of callousness are prescribed policy. The
latter insist that they are isolated incidents committed by a
handful of rogue troops; such as the shameful events at Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq. But they still happened and continue to happen.
There have also been many other unsavory incidents and instances,
such as widespread 'collateral damage'; enough to suggest that
there is something more going on than isolated incidences of
brutality. The point to be made here is that just because one
side, the terrorists, choose to abandon the rules of fair-play,
that does not mean that the other party to the conflict has to
follow suit and adopt more brutal and indiscriminate means of
warfare. Let alone resort to torture.
It seems that what is really going on here is that in response
to atrocities or acts of savagery by an uncivilized foe--the
first being September 11 and then Madrid and Bali and London,
and then Bali again and on the ground in Iraq everyday--the West,
in the name of Civilization and the battle of good over evil,
is seeking to justify a turn to any means necessary, including
more brutal means of warfare. A war against such an evil and
unscrupulous barbarous enemy cannot be won by conventional means;
rather we must fight fire with fire--so the argument goes. Or
at least this is what we try to convince ourselves. But perhaps
it is more the case that those more base instincts and uncivilized
means have been at our disposal and employed by us--the West--all
along. History seems to suggest as much. All too regularly we
dehumanize our enemy--the uncivilized savage who lacks virtue,
chivalry, is beyond the pale materially and morally--in order
to justify to ourselves the recourse to the more brutal means
we claim to abhor and claim to be antithetical to our very ideal
of Civilization. The dichotomy between the civilized, uniformed,
chivalrous combatant and the opportunistic, treacherous barbarian
is a false one. Perhaps there is something in the argument that
all people, fundamentally 'good' people included, are capable
of doing bad or evil acts given certain circumstances. Just as
'bad' people are capable of random acts of kindness.
As Immanuel Kant reminds us in Perpetual Peace, 'even
some philosophers have praised it [war] as an ennoblement of
humanity, forgetting the pronouncement of the Greek who said,
"War is an evil inasmuch as it produces more wicked men
than it takes away"'. We would also do well to take note
of Walter Benjamin's poignantly made point that 'there is no
document of civilization which is not at the same time a document
of barbarism'. As with every other war that has been or will
ever be fought, no belligerent has a monopoly on the barbarism
and terror of war. The war on terror is no exception.
Dr Brett Bowden is a Research Fellow in the Centre for
International Governance and Justice at the Australian National
University. He is the author of The Empire of Civilization:
A story about making History and influencing Peoples. An
edited collection of essays, Terror: From Tyrannicide to Terrorism
in Europe, 1605-2005, will also be published in 2007. He
can be reached at: Brett.Bowden@anu.edu.au
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