In the War Against Terror, Freedoms Suffer

By Muath Bishawi

With the fifth anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Americans and fellow humans all over the globe take a look back in the past to that Tuesday morning.  Other than being a major event in US history, September 11, 2001 was a huge turning point in international politics and relations. 

Many disturbing events follow, among the few are the Bush administration’s adopting the tactics of preemptive warfare, the war on Iraq, and human rights taking a back seat to security.  The country once known as the beacon of human rights, freedoms and religious tolerance was beginning to change.  The patriot act was adopted, talking away many of the rights that we enjoyed before.  Then the abuse scandals of Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo Bay erupted. 

We have been fighting the terrorists for over five years, and they seem to grow larger and stronger.  They are like grey hairs-- if you pull one out with force, two more come out. 

Civilian blood is being spilled on a daily basis.  Anti-American feelings are widely spreading and the wave of hate is only carrying more and more boats from around the world.  Five years after September 11, we look at our progress to only see 2,671US soldiers dead, over 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians lying in graves, hundred of thousands more injured, and Iraq on the brink of a deadly civil war--  a civil war, which I might add, capable of destabilizing the already suffering middle east. 

Five years after September 11, we are reading reports issued by Human Rights groups like Amnesty International criticizing US human rights abuses and calling for the end of the unlawful imprisonment of personals in US prisons. 

So are we fighting the war correctly?  Is there another way?

When it comes to international terrorism, the war does not have a front. The international arena is the battlefield and almost no target is off limits.  So how can the conventional bombs, guns and tanks fight the battle?  Simple answer, they can not!  Our administration must begin to realize that our hard power is only causing more harm.  We as a country must begin to rely on our soft power, and what we can offer to the rest of the world.  We must end our international tactics of supporting oppressive puppet governments, whose oppressed people look at the US as an enemy.  We must become the source of hope rather than the source of suffering.  We must reallocate the hundreds of millions of dollars that we use to build weapons to kill, to areas where they can heal.  Build schools in areas with poor education (hint: vulnerable to terrorist recruitment).  Fight health threats that are easy to cure, build hospitals, and empower the poor through economic and educational programs.  Bridge the ever-widening gape between the west and the east.  We must do all of these things not just because they are the right things to do, but because it is in our best interest to do so.  It is a widely known fact that “desperate people do desperate things”.  So ending people’s desperation will give them hope to live, prosper, educate their children, and lead peaceful lives.  A hope to live that would not have existed if one of their family members has been a civilian victim of a US attack, and their farming jobs closed down as a result of the inability to compete with government-subsidized US crop exports.   A hope of a future with opportunities and choices.  That’s the American way, and we must change back to it.

RIP. Victims of 9/11, Civilian Iraqi and Afghani victims, and all those that died as a result of violence.