September 10, 2006 - Negotiation, not war

In Michael P. DeCicco’s recent letter to the editor (“War makes progress by killing terrorists”, 9/9) the writer argued that, since “diplomacy and negotiations with terrorists don't work,” and despite the fact “Nobody really knows how many terrorists and radical Islamists have been exterminated,” Mr. DeCicco thinks that “when our commander in chief believes that we have killed a sufficient number” of terrorists, our soldiers can leave Iraq as victors because he “trust[s] President Bush's judgment on this matter.”

I think there are at least four major problems with Mr. DeCicco’s analysis.

Firstly, many countries have negotiated with terrorist organizations: Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (himself a former member of the Irgun Jewish terrorist organization) negotiated a peace deal with Yasser Arafat, the head of the PLO terrorist group; the British negotiated with Sinn Fein to end the terrorism of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the U.K.; the GAM terrorist group signed a comprehensive peace accord with the Indonesian government; most recently, sanctions followed by British and U.S. diplomacy seem to have ended Libyan state-sponsored terrorism, etc.

Secondly, overthrowing Saddam Hussein was a reckless act that turned Iraq into a major terrorist recruitment center and a proving ground for terrorist tactics that have already been exported elsewhere (Madrid, Afghanistan, Beirut, etc.) As with the mythical Hydra, the U.S. military may be creating two new terrorists for every one it kills, and at a price tag of perhaps tens or hundreds of millions of dollars per dead terrorist, eventually the “war on terrorism” could consume the entire American GDP!

Thirdly, and tellingly, Mr. DeCicco called for only “a sufficient number” of terrorists to be killed in the so-called “war on terrorism” instead of demanding total victory against terrorism. Could anyone imagine, for example, FDR declaring that WWII would be fought until “a sufficient number” of Nazis were killed? The question answers itself: there can be no “war on terrorism”; there can be no final “victory” against terrorism; terrorism cannot be defeated through violence; violence encourages more terrorism.

Lastly, I think Mr. DeCicco’s trust in President Bush is entirely unmerited: Bush has no honor, he is neither trustworthy nor competent, and it is hard for me to understand how anyone who has witnessed the disaster that is the Bush presidency (Bush v. Gore, reneging on the Kyoto Agreement, the longest presidential vacation in history followed by 911 and the appointment of ultimate-insider Henry Kissinger to head the 911 investigation, the appointment of ex-felon John Poindexter to head the “Total Information Awareness” citizen-surveillance program, the unsolved anthrax attacks and the dubious color-coded terror alerts, the cynically-named “No Child Left Behind” and "Help America Vote" and “Patriot” Acts and the establishment of the Nazi-sounding Department of “Homeland” Security, the Orwellian-named “Healthy Forest” and “Clear Skies” Acts, the war in Afghanistan and the escape of Bin Laden and the return of the Taliban, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and the extraordinary renditions and the secret torture prisons, the false WMD allegations leading to the Iraq war and ensuing quagmire, the rejection of U.S. foreign policy by nearly the entire world, the warrantless wiretaps, the Medicare Drug Benefit bill sold to Congress with a false price tag, tax cuts leading to record budget deficits, the cowardly refusal to speak to Cindy Sheehan or to attend the funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, the misguided Bernard Kerik and Harriet Myers nominations, support for Michael “Brownie” Brown and the mismanagement of Hurricane Katrina, the use of signing statements to circumvent Congress and the law, the Dubai Ports deal, the amnesty for illegal immigrants plan, the development of North Korean nuclear weapons and the ongoing Iranian nuclear program, the elevation of fear and faith and rhetoric over reason and science and reality, etc.) could place any faith in the man.

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