On Ending Terrorism

Since September 11th, the progressive movement has been on the defensive. Buttimes are changing. The mushrooming Enron scandal; European criticism of thetreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo; the U.S.'s inability to apprehend BinLaden or Mullah Omar, either dead or alive; recession and rising unemployment;Cheney's refusal to release information about his energy task force: all ofthese developments have put the Bush oil- and-war-men on the defensive. It'stime for us to come forward with a political counter-offensive, visibleactivism, outreach and outspokenness, through such activity as the April 20thdemonstration in Washington, D.C. initiated by the National Youth and StudentPeace Coalition, forthright peace and justice electoral campaigns and othercampaigns.

In order to be most effective in this counter-offensive, we need to be ableto directly address the issue of terrorism. By "terrorism" I mean thedeliberate and organized use of force or violence against innocent civilians toadvance a political, economic, religious or social agenda, engaged in by eithergovernments, organizations or individuals.

What is an affirmative approach to combating this problem, doing so in a waythat can move us in the direction of a truly new world?

First, as far as Al Qaeda in particular, there is an approach which couldhave been used that probably would have been more productive, certainly in thelong-term and possibly in the short-term. Such an approach would have involvedintensive but respectful diplomacy; drying up Al Qaeda financial support--whichespecially means getting tough on the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Al Qaeda's primarybackers; policy changes vis a vis Israel/Palestine and Iraq; serious support tothe more democratic and non- warlord-controlled opposition groups inAfghanistan; and limited military/police action in Afghanistan to arrest AlQaeda leaders as necessary following broad-based international support for suchaction. As distinct from the Bush/Cheney adminstration's opposition, we shouldsupport the establishment of an International Criminal Court to bring to justicethose accused of crimes such as the 9-11 attacks.

Second, we need to investigate the failure of U.S. intelligence agencies onSeptember 11th. What was behind the resignation of John O'Neil, former DeputyDirector of the FBI in charge of investigating Al Qaeda, two weeks beforeSeptember 11th? He is quoted in a book published in France as saying, "themain obstacles to investigating Islamic terrorism were U.S. oil corporateinterests, and role played by Saudi Arabia in it."

What about a whole series of reports indicating that there was at least someprior knowledge on the government's part of "something big" about tohappen and little being done about these warnings? Is it true, as has beencirculating on the internet, that a top intelligence official made a lot ofmoney through the buying and selling of airline stocks just before and onSeptember 11th? Are our intelligence agencies too tied in to multinationalcorporations such that their "intelligence" work is compromised orworse?

We need government agencies that are about "intelligence" thattruly defends us against groups like Al Qaeda using intelligence information forthe advancement of human rights and human progress, not corporate power andwealth.

Third, we need to get serious about the development of alternative energysources so that we will not be dependent upon Middle East oil. This would play amajor role in helping to reverse the global warming crisis. Jim Hightower andSenator John Kerry are among those who have recently called for this approach asan essential aspect of post-9-11 government policy. In Hightower's words, weshould "enlist our very best scientists in a crash program. . . to resolveany remaining technological impediments to the mass use of fuel cells, biomass,solar, wind, geo-thermal and other abundant, clean and cheap energysources." In 1992 Presidential candidate Jerry Brown called for a crusadeto weatherize our buildings and homes and make them much more energy-efficient.Hightower again: "The simple steps of common-sense conservation are provensolutions that can cut America's electricity use in half and cut consumers'utility bills by a total of $17 billion a month! Doing this job will puthundreds of thousands of our people to work, putting badly needed paychecks intothe grassroots economy and instantly lifting our nation from recession torecovery." We should take money out of the Pentagon budget and put itinstead into improving and strengthening our railroads, subway and bus systemsand other forms of mass transportation so that this becomes an economical andattractive option for those who drive cars.

Fourth, as we take these steps, we have no reason to continue supportingcorrupt, sexist or racist, undemocratic and repressive regimes throughout theMiddle East and elsewhere. Instead of support to the Saudi Arabian regime, wecan tell them that they either move to democratize their country and provide forbasic civil and human rights for women, or they can expect no more such support.In cooperation with the United Nations we can end the economic sanctions on Iraqthat are the primary reason why somewhere between one-half and one millionchildren have died in the 11 years since the Gulf War. We can take aneven-handed approach to the Israel/Palestine conflict, opposing acts of terrorfrom both sides, calling for Israel to end its illegal, 35-year occupation ofthe West Bank and Gaza and abandon its settlements, and supporting a two-statesolution as the only viable, immediate answer to this escalating crisis. We canbe the leader in the provision of financial and human support for Afghanistan'sreconstruction, doing so in a way which respects their right toself-determination and not acting in a neo-colonialist, "uglyAmerican" way.

Fifth, we should get serious about the demilitarization of the world,beginning here at home. We should not abandon the ABM treaty, and we shouldterminate the ridiculous, wasteful and destabilizing efforts to create aso-called "missile defense" system. No weapons or nuclear power inspace. We should move towards a reduction of the U.S.war budget with a goal ofcutting it in half by 2010, with us taking the first steps but increasinglymaking reductions in cooperation with other countries, challenging them tofollow our lead. We need to stop pushing more and more lethal and expensiveweapons systems onto other countries, increasing the profits of war corporationsbut making the world a poorer and more dangerous place. We should develop a planfor conversion of war industry to peacetime uses and a program to provide newjobs at comparable income for all workers and soldiers displaced bydemilitarization.

Sixth, we must live up to our democratic ideals and principles that havenever been fully implemented and which are clearly even more at risk because ofthe sham "war on terrorism." We must roll back the USA Patriot Actwith its expansion of the ability of the FBI, CIA and other government agenciesto eavesdrop, snoop and secretly investigate those they choose to go afterwithout any court authorization. There should be open, public, Congressionalhearings--something which did not happen prior to the passage of the PatriotAct--into this question of what additional tools should be provided to lawenforcement agencies to deal with the threat from Al Qaeda or any similargroups. Congress must assert its oversight role as far as war powers and policy,not give a blank check to Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld to do whatever they wishanywhere in the world. No secret military tribunals. No racial profiling, andfirm action against police brutality. There must be due process rights,including access to family members and lawyers, for those"disappeared" into prison as a result of 9- 11.

And if we are truly serious about democracy, the two-party, big-money-dominated, winner-take-all electoral system must undergo a fundamentaltransformation. We need "clean money" elections, the election oflegislative bodies using proportional representation, and the use ofpreference/instant runoff voting in elections for a single seat.

Finally, and as the pro-corporate World Economic Forum is about to convene atthe Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan, our country must turn away from what is called"free trade" and instead embrace "fair trade" and economicand social justice as the ultimate, long-term answer to terrorism. NAFTA, GATT,the IMF, the World Bank, the FTAA, the WTO: all of these U.S.-controlled orheavily influenced trade and finance entities and treaties are about theever-increasing dominance of huge, dictatorial, destructive corporations overmore and more aspects of life for people all over the world. Millions havealready demonstrated or taken action in a variety of ways to oppose theseprocesses. The vast, overwhelming super- majority of those actions have beennon-violent, certainly non-terrorist. We must continue to build this movement.It is the only hope for an end to all forms of terrorism, government,organizational and individual. We must stop our government from engaging in andsupporting repressive, militaristic activity that furthers injustice andcorporate profiteering. We need an affirmative program to redistribute wealthand power, including anti-speculation taxes and wealth taxes on millionaires andbillionaires. We should support the call for reparations emerging from theUnited Nations International Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa just afew days before September 11th. We must remove the desperate conditions of lifewhich are the soil from which the terrorism of the powerless grows.

The responsibility is on us, those of us who clearly understand the dangersfacing our country and our world because of the Bush-oil-and-war men and anopportunistic national Democratic Party that continues to be virtually unanimousin its support of the sham "war on terrorism." Their militaristic waris only breeding more terrorism, and it's subverting what democracy we stillhave left. It's time for us to come forward, loud and clear.

(Ted Glick is National Coordinator of the IndependentProgressive Politics Network  and author of Future Hope: A WinningStrategy for a Just Society. He can be reached at futurehopeTG@aol.com orP.O. Box 1132, Bloomfield, N.J. 07003)