Terrorism and Justice

by Joe Mayer

Terrorism is a despicable cowardly murder of innocent people. Imperial state terrorism (war) is a despicable cowardly murder of innocent people.

The second statement above is completely unacceptable in today's America and will surely bring accusations of treason. But those of us who truly love the United States in which we grew up must risk our comfort to speak truth to power, because the country that was once the beacon of freedom and justice has lost those values and is now resented by the majority of the world's citizens

Americans leaders today speak of an "unending" war on terror. Terror and the fear it generates is a self-perpetuating spiral, one that our politicians employ for reelection. Once reelected, they continue policies that fuel terrorist reaction and which fulfills their war prophecy.

• If we can justify all the wars, bombing and killing that we've inflicted on the world –
• If we can justify 10,000 nuclear weapons with the desire to build more –
• If we can justify a foreign policy of militarism to support American business interests –
• If we can justify claims to be a peaceful nation and promote "unending" war at the same time –
• If we can justify overthrowing sovereign governments by our CIA and other intelligence agencies –
• If we can justify eliminating due process and promoting rendition and torture –
• If we can justify appealing to the United Nations for help and castigating it at the same time –
• If we can justify our claimed right to pollute the earth –
• If we can justify using over twenty-five percent of the resources for six percent of the world's people –
• If we can justify continued immunity from The World Court and still demand that it prosecute others –
• If we can justify picking and choosing which world treaties we will accept and when –
• If we can justify supplying the world with devastating weapons –
• If we can justify claiming that God is on our side because we are good –
• If we can justify all of this, then, surely people on the receiving end of these double standards, these injustices, can, in their own rationalization, justify fighting back.

In our self-righteousness and arrogance we refuse to take any responsibility for the hatred of the world toward us. We continue to allow the neoconservatives, the military complex and all the war hawks to dominate our foreign policy with more violence as our only response. According to them everything (meaning nuclear) is "on the table" — all the time — everywhere.

9/11 is nearly five years past. Do we believe that we and the rest of the world are any safer? Has the violence we've exploded in the Middle East lessoned the threat of terrorism? Will more enemies created by more violence make us more secure? The hawks want us to believe the answer to all these questions is "yes." They're already campaigning on the issue of national security, calling anyone against their programs as "weak on national security."

We have much work to do. Our elected Democratic officials need a shot of backbone. They just caved in again on the Israel/Hezbollah issue by condoning more violence. While the rest of the world tries to defuse this continuing conflict with some semblance of objectivity, Democrats and Republicans march in lockstep toward further isolation from world opinion. Every time Congressional Democrats follow the Republican leadership in a crisis such as this, they once again concede national security issues to the Republicans.

We need to project justice into national security, morality into our economic undertakings, and common sense into our foreign policy.