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US: Win the terror fight with values, not force

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-11 09:26

WASHINGTON: For the first time since the September 11 attacks, the United States is tackling the fight against terror by insisting on traditional values rather than force, moving beyond the Bush era.

A total ban on torture; a pledge to close the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; shuttering secret CIA detention centers: the most controversial fronts of the US "war on terror" launched by former president George W. Bush have been all but banished since President Barack Obama's arrival in the White House.

Even the very term "war on terror," a staple of the Bush years, was renounced in August by John Brennan, a top advisor of Obama, who said it suggested the US was at war with the rest of the world.

"Obama has a distinctive approach to tackling terrorism that differed from the previous administration's and (...) the Obama approach is holistic and takes more seriously the underlying grievances that cause angry people to be violent," said Steven Simon, senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Center on Foreign Relations.

"Obama is exactly right that when a democracy violates core principles of fairness in fighting terror, it aids the terrorists, by fueling their propaganda," said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor.

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Cementing closer ties to the Muslim world, and restoring a damaged US image worldwide are pillars of Obama's strategy in international affairs.

Simon said Obama has secured a credibility advantage over Bush, by arguing that the US does not want to wage war on Muslims, wants to fight poverty, and bolster democracy in Afghanistan.

"Since the way to victory is to isolate Al-Qaida from its potential bases of support, the US must respond in ways that are viewed as legitimate and just," Cole added.

And the undoing of the Bush system has many conservatives, most notably former vice president Dick Cheney, up in arms.

Seen as a leading force behind the hard-line anti-terror methods used in the wake of the 9/11 strikes, Cheney charges that Obama is endangering national security.

"The individuals subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about Al-Qaida," Cheney said in August. "This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks."

AFP