The War On Terror Could Have Been Won
                             by Hasan Abu Nimah
                                Jordan Times
                                21 Aug 2002


     IT HAS been almost a year since the attacks on Sept. 11 shocked
     the world, but the war on terror is far from over. The extent and
     the vicious nature of the tragedy had raised deep hopes,
     worldwide, that the root causes would be addressed, and valuable
     lessons would be learnt, but such hopes have fast dissipated.

     There was no lack of support, from many countries in the world,
     for America's "war on terror," and no lack of cooperation either
     -- sometimes reluctant but often willing. In the fields of
     intelligence, a great deal of assistance was offered and rendered
     in tracking down suspects and squeezing their financial resources.

     Yet the Americans have plainly frustrated, if not betrayed, the
     trust of those who had hoped the anti-terror war would be
     conducted on the firm basis of objectivity, a high degree of
     responsibility, and justice.

     It is very true that it was not possible to link the September
     atrocities to any understandable, let alone legitimate, cause. No
     cause could justify using passenger planes carrying innocent
     civilians as rockets against other innocent civilian targets,
     resulting in an immense loss of life, and catastrophic
     destruction.

     Yet, if there was total revulsion for the September attacks
     themselves, there was certainly a prevailing feeling in their wake
     that America's selective approach to international problems and
     the misapplication of International Law and justice needed to be
     examined and drastically rectified.

     Even away from the impact of the attacks, and since the dramatic
     collapse of the Soviet Union which left America the unchallenged
     leader of the world, concerns were already rising that the
     application of double standards, and the serious deviation from
     the right values and principles, accompanied by total reliance on
     the supremacy of military power, were leading to international
     chaos, hopelessness and despair.

     Instead of taking Sept. 11 as the long awaited wake-up call, the
     US administration inconsiderately eliminated any possible
     advantage and quickly resorted to the old style of handling a
     major world crisis and a devastating national tragedy -- by
     imposing hegemony, pursuing short-sighted goals, and settling old
     scores.

     This is consolidating, rather than alleviating the bitterness and
     vast fears which many believed were behind the culture of hate and
     vindictiveness that produced the brutal September attacks.

     Two significant blunders seriously compromised the American
     effort. One was US submission to Israeli pressure advocating that
     any Palestinian or Arab action resisting or opposing the continued
     Israeli occupation of Arab lands, should be put on the list of
     targets. The other was the frenzied calls for an attack on Iraq
     with the declared intention of bringing down Iraqi President
     Saddam Hussein's regime.

     Both issues have been nurturing anti-American feelings in the
     region for a long time. They have contributed to deepening
     mistrust, tension and frustration. Many believed that if the
     Americans revised their policies toward these two pressing issues
     they would cover significant ground in regaining trust, and
     prestige; and as a result, achieve significant gains in the war
     against terror.

     This unfortunately did not happen, in fact the exact opposite did.
     By unreservedly adopting the policy of a right-wing racist
     government in Israel, the US became directly accountable for every
     atrocity that Israel commits on a daily basis. By branding even
     legitimate Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation as
     pure unjustified terror, as Israel maintains, the US is allowing
     much of the support for its justifiable war on terror, to
     decrease.

     It is true that some of the resistance methods, such as suicide
     bombings targeting civilians, are undeniably wrong, and even the
     Palestinian National Authority has described them as acts of
     terror. Yet the Palestinian issue -- the result of a struggle
     between two peoples, one of which is deprived of all its
     legitimate rights -- is a totally different matter and should be
     treated independently.

     The US insists that it should change the regime in Iraq by
     military force, but is struggling to find a pretext, let alone a
     legal cover for this undertaking. In the absence of both, and
     despite extensive intelligence efforts to find any proof linking
     Iraq to Sept.11 or Al Qaeda, the remaining claims range from Iraqi
     defiance of UN resolutions, to stockpiling of weapons of mass
     destruction (WMD), which are a threat to regional and world
     security.

     In the eyes of most people such allegations are striking examples
     of a selective approach to issues and an application of double
     standards. Is Iraq the only country that can be accused of failing
     to comply with UN resolutions? Is it the only country that
     possesses WMD, if it does?

     What about Israel? While Iraq does not occupy even an inch of any
     of its neighbours' territory, Israel, in blatant defiance of
     International Law and UN resolutions, continues to occupy vast
     areas of Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian land and build
     settlements on them, and continues to violate every international
     rule and commit every heinous atrocity.

     While Iraq is only accused of stockpiling WMD, Israel is known to
     possess a huge nuclear arsenal and ominous leaks indicate that the
     Israelis would use it.

     The war on terror would have been won by now had it not been
     messed up and wrongly entangled with unrelated issues. Terror
     remains a real danger to our existence and civilisation. It should
     indeed be eliminated, and all efforts should be mobilised towards
     achieving that end. The first step though is to address injustice
     and accept the rule of law.

     The writer is former ambassador and permanent representative of
     Jordan to the UN. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.

     © 2002 The Jordan Times
     Reprinted for Fair Use Only.





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