Ending Terrorism Means Promoting Justice
by Glen Stassen and Steven Brion-Meisels*
On September 11, the deaths of thousands of civilians in the United States created feelings of sadness, anger, injustice and helplessness across our nation and the world. When political leaders turned feelings of anger, helplessness and injustice into a call for revenge and retribution, the cycle of violence was accelerated rather than stopped. If we care about true peace (the kind of peace that Dr. King called "not the absence of violence but the presence of justice"), we must break the cycle that has led to the twin terrorisms of 9/11 and its aftermath: attacks on civilians in the United States, and attacks on the livelihoods of desperate and starving people in Afghanistan. In both the short and long terms, the way out of this cycle is to focus on justice rather than retribution, law rather than war, development rather than destruction.
Justice calls on us to prosecute those who committed murder on September 11. But justice also calls on us to understand and address the roots of terrorism, including both its acts and its capacity to recruit. Law calls on us to follow procedures designed to protect other innocent lives, to use force to apprehend rather than destroy - because as Representative Barbara Lee reminded us, we must not "become the evil we deplore." Development calls on us to share our immense wealth in ways that promote reasonable lives for the millions of people who daily face the terror of starvation, disease, homelessness, violence and early death - in our own cities, in Afghanistan and around the world.
It is easy to reject current U.S. strategies. There is growing agreement even among former military leaders that unilateral militarist actions will not make American citizens safer. Outside the U.S., there is growing agreement that a long-term response to terrorism requires using available legal structures to prosecute international criminals, while at the same time addressing the ways in which injustice fuels terrorism.
But those of us who oppose war and militarist strategies must propose alternative paths. Fortunately, we can draw on a century of successful non-violent strategies that have promoted peace and justice at home and abroad. Here are seven principles and practices that we believe can address the roots of terrorism, help make communities around the world safer, and promote sustainable justice rather than cycles of violence.
- Address the roots not just the symptoms. Jonathan Moore (former U.S. ?????? in the Bush senior administrations) writes that "the increasing gap between rich and poor is both morally and politically dangerous, and requires a new appreciation that our national interest is increasingly defined in terms of the lives of others." (Boston Globe, 9/29). Moore cites President G.W. Bush's own speech to the World Bank, where the President said, "A world where some live in comfort and plenty, while half the human race lives on less than two dollars a day, is neither just, nor stable."
We call on our elected leaders to stop military action and increase humanitarian aid in Afghanistan; to seek safety, justice and freedom from terrorism for Palestinians as well as Israelis; to turn America's talent away from retribution and toward sustainable, democratic economic development.
- Recognize the role of all parties. The United States will diagnose the causes, create more effective responses, and receive more international support if we are able to recognize our own role in the cycle of terrorism. Our government armed Taliban leaders in a proxy war against Russia, just as we armed Iraq against Iran. The U.S. did little to help rebuild Afghanistan; post-war chaos and devastation allowed the Taliban to gain power. In Iraq, U.S.-led sanctions have contributed to more than one million civilian deaths. Media images of Islamic and Arabic peoples as fanatical terrorists, have led to ethnic profiling at home and a neglect in advocating for human rights in the Middle East.
We call on our elected officials and media to recognize the role our nation has played not only as a democratic leader but also as a contributor to violence through our foreign policy and our weapons sales. The end of denial is the first step toward healing and recovery.
- Take independent initiatives that reduce violence and promote justice.
We call on our elected leaders to:
A) accept the request of Taliban leaders to talk about solutions.
B) we must move rapidly from bombing Afghanistan to aiding its starving people. geometrically increasing humanitarian aid, through U.N. and other NGO representatives rather than the ineffective high-altitude food drops that now dominate headlines.
C) we must press Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take initiatives towards a sustainable truce that includes the Mitchell Commission recommendations to stop all new Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The distrust there is so deep that both sides must take credible initiatives of de-escalation and justice before the people will accept a negotiated peace. Independent initiatives have been used successfully to break stalemates in the past; we can use them again in this situation.
- Re-engage with international forces. A bright spot in this tragedy has been the administrationís recognition that it needs support of many other nations if the struggle against terrorism is to succeed. European, Arab and Muslim leaders have pressed for avoiding harm to innocent people in the bombings, and for justice for people in need in Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq. From the start of his administration, President Bush disengaged from peacemaking between Israel and Palestine, between South and North Korea, and from international treaties: the ABM Treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and the Kyoto Accords. Without international pressure, the desperation of Palestinians in the face of a powerful Israeli military supports the recruitment of young men and women willing to kill and be killed in their search for justice.
We call on our elected leaders to:
A) Implement a program to address the roots of terrorism.
B) work collaboratively with other nations, and to hear their wisdom.
C) press the Israeli government to curtail settlements and implement new agreements along the lines of the Mitchell Commission plan. This is the sustainable solution for Israel and throughout the Middle East.
- Use force only to apprehend and protect, not to destroy. Since September 11, a growing number of voices have called for the rule of law, not the rule of war. This commitment includes protection of civil liberties as well as airport terminals, and respect for the rule of law not the rules of war. In William Sloane Coffin's words, "What we need is the force of law, not the law of force." ( New Haven Register, 9/24). We can look to important examples of successful legal approaches to the killing of innocent civilians. From Milosevic to Lockerbie, from Chile to Rwanda, successful international prosecutions provide a model for how terrorism can be addressed without recreating cycles of violence. It takes time, but it works.
We call on our elected officials to:
A) press for legal rather than militarist strategies
B) support the International Criminal Court, the International War Crimes Tribunal, and the World Court.
Together, we can create a new kind of force for the 21st century, based on multilateral persuasion and enforcement, rather than unilateral retribution.
- Increase the capacity of multilateral, civilian based organizations. The fight against international terrorism must be truly multilateral - based not on "with us or against us" bullying strategies, but on collaboration and persuasion. We call on our elected leaders to re-energize the role of the United Nations and other Non-Governmental (NGO) organizations. These groups have a demonstrated success record for delivering humanitarian aid; and they have the international networks required to move beyond "us against them" positions. The Twin Towers demonstrate the connections and interdependence of the world's peoples. The victims included civilians of many nationalities; the solutions must be found across national borders and beyond traditional governments.
- Foster inter-cultural understanding and reconciliation. Another bright spot in our national response to September 11 has been the broad commitment of ordinary people to respect the rights of Islamic and Arabic peoples within the U.S. Early calls for retribution, along with wanted posters of Osama Bin Laden in store windows contributed to racial profiling and the deaths of innocent U.S. civilians who looked Arabic. If war continues the cycle of terrorism, this kind of violence is likely to re-appear. The grassroots citizen initiatives to reach out and in some cases protect Islamic centers and mosques must be supported and applauded.
We call on our elected leaders to actively foster inter-cultural understanding and reconciliation at home and abroad. This requires sustained dialogue with Islamic leaders about their perspectives on international issues, the end of media and government stereotypes, and better education about Islam here in the U.S. It calls for Muslims and Arabs not only to be for peace, but to articulate and teach their peacemaking practices; and it calls for others to listen with open minds and hearts.
These actions will not stop terrorism tomorrow or the next day, but they will address deep roots and sustainable solutions. They do not provide simple responses to our feelings of anger, sadness, injustice and helplessness, but they are an alternative path toward healing and reconstruction. These kinds of actions have proven over the past century to be the only sustainable path to real peace: a safety rooted in justice rather than fear. Militarist responses at home and abroad will take us farther down the path of fear, anger, injustice and violence that brought us to September 11. In fact, militarist responses will recruit more terrorists and lead to further acts of terrorism against people at home and abroad. If we care about our own children, and the children of people like us around the world, we will use September 11 as the starting point for a different journey, down a different path. We have the roadmap; we must decide to use it.
* This essay is based on work developed by the authors for Peace Action, and in a cooperative book edited by Glen Stassen (Just Peacemaking, Pilgrim Press, 1998)
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