How to defeat bin Laden
The
U.S. should drop its war rhetoric and convince the Islamic world that he is a
dangerous fugitive from justice.
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By Michael
T. Klare
Sept. 13,
2001 | If,
as appears increasingly likely, groups associated with terrorist mastermind
Osama bin Laden are found to be responsible for Tuesday's murderous attacks
in New York and Washington, the United States would be fully justified in
taking vigorous action to apprehend and punish him and to put his terror networks
out of business. The question then becomes: What strategy will best accomplish
this objective?
There
are many in Washington and around the country who believe that the United
States should declare war on bin Laden -- along with any governments that have
given him assistance of one sort or another -- and employ the full weight of
American military power to accomplish this purpose. Such action would
undoubtedly help restore confidence in the power of the American nation, and
provide a degree of satisfaction to those who crave retribution for Tuesday's
horrific attacks. But we must also ask: Will it achieve the goal of eradicating
bin Laden's networks and eliminating the terrorist threat to the United States?
There are good reasons to suspect that it will not.
The
image of American aircraft and missiles bombing Arab states and producing
massive casualties -- many of them, inevitably, civilians with no ties to
terrorists -- will surely confirm the belief among many ordinary Muslims that
bin Laden is right: that the United States is intent on tormenting and
subduing the Islamic world. As Bruce Shapiro has observed, out of the rubble of
American attacks will come thousands of new volunteers for bin Laden's
anti-American jihad.
Even
more troubling, it is highly unlikely that such action will actually succeed in
crippling bin Laden's underground networks. Unlike conventional military
forces, these groups do not maintain fixed bases and installations but move
from one camouflaged location to another -- all over the world. (Several of the
terrorists suspected of involvement in Tuesday's attacks are now thought to
have spent the past year hiding in a quiet, inconspicuous neighborhood in
Hamburg, Germany.) Some of these groups may get caught in the U.S. attacks, but
others will surely escape -- and remain in position to conduct new acts of
terrorism.
As
an alternative to military action of this sort, I propose a strategy that
combines global law enforcement collaboration plus moral and religious combat.
It would compel the Bush administration to drop its war rhetoric and instead
treat its hunt for bin Laden as a criminal investigation.
It
will not be possible to put bin Laden's networks out of operation without the
cooperation of police and intelligence personnel all over the globe --
including the Islamic world. The best way to do this is to brand bin Laden and
his associates as mass murderers who are sought for trial and punishment under
U.S. law -- as has been done with other suspected terrorists. Then, the United
States should order a massive global manhunt to capture bin Laden and all of
his associates, wherever they dwell. It will be much harder for an Islamic
government to refuse our requests for assistance in tracking down and arresting
bin Laden's associates if we indict them for multiple murders and portray this
as a criminal matter. The deliberate murder of innocents is a crime and an
abomination in all societies -- Islamic ones no less than any others.
Furthermore,
to prevent the recruitment of additional volunteers into bin Laden's networks
(or others of their type), we have to successfully portray him as an enemy of
authentic Islam. Bin Laden has succeeded in recruiting followers up until now
-- volunteers who are willing to sacrifice their lives -- because he has been
able to portray himself as the true defender of Islam. Now, we must seek out
and ally ourselves with the vast number of Muslims who are repelled and
horrified by the death of so many innocent people in New York and Washington.
We must encourage influential Muslim clerics to condemn bin Laden as an enemy
of true Islamic belief. Only in this way can we silence him (and his kind)
forever.
To
win over peace-minded Muslims to our side in this struggle, we will, of course,
have to show greater sympathy for their concerns. This includes, for example, the
plight of ordinary Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and the suffering of
the Iraqi civilians who are denied basic goods and medicine due to the
U.S.-backed economic sanctions. This need not entail a sudden about-face in
U.S. policy, but would require greater public recognition of others' pain and
suffering. After all, we are now victims too -- and this gives us a common
basis upon which to ask for their assistance in a common struggle against
violence and terrorism.
I
know that the calls for military action will grow in volume. And I share a
sense of outrage against those who killed so many of our countrymen and women.
But I want the campaign against bin Laden to succeed -- both in a practical and
a moral sense. Battle cries like that of Sen. Zell Miller, who called on the
U.S. Thursday to "bomb the hell out of Afghanistan" for harboring bin
Laden, may make us feel momentarily elated. But in the long run, it is only the
pursuit of justice that can secure a peaceful world. The best way to accomplish
this is for the U.S. to treat bin Laden as a criminal fugitive, not an enemy of
war.
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About
the writer
Michael
T. Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire
College in Amherst, Mass., and the author of "Resource Wars: The New
Landscape of Global Conflict"
from http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2001/09/13/justice/index.html