09.16.08
The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means
RG mail
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1523838,00.html
The Guardian July 8, 2005
The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means
By Robin Cook
.
Bin Laden was a product of a monumental miscalculation by western
security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and
funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of
Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally “the database”, was originally the
computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and
trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians. Inexplicably,
and with disastrous consequences, it never appears to have occurred to
Washington that once Russia was out of the way, Bin Laden’s
organisation would turn its attention to the west.
The danger now is that the west’s current response to the terrorist
threat compounds that original error. So long as the struggle against
terrorism is conceived as a war that can be won by military means, it
is doomed to fail. The more the west emphasises confrontation, the
more it silences moderate voices in the Muslim world who want to speak
up for cooperation. Success will only come from isolating the
terrorists and denying them support, funds and recruits, which means
focusing more on our common ground with the Muslim world than on what
divides us.
.
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United
Kingdom from 1997 to 2001. He resigned from his post as Leader of the
House of Commons and Lord President of the Council on 17 March 2003 in
protest against the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
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