A War Already Lost

 A War Already Lost

by Captain Hanry Buchori

Bob Elis, in his relatively short piece of work asserts that the US has lost in its global “War on Terror”.[1] He also suggests the US authority to admit the loss and bring up a real truce with the terrorists.[2] In his point of view, the impact of the US counterterrorism policy is three-fold. First, the deployment of the US troops to fight the terrorists in Middle East and other Muslim homelands has greatly aroused the global hatred of Islamic world. Second, the application of that paranoid policy is considered threatening the democratic principles and often goes far beyond the humanitarian values. Third, the outstanding figure of military spending to fund the war is not equal with the achieved results and instead, completely ineffective. Bob Elis wishes the Americans to immediately turn over their counterterrorism discourse. They should more focus to resolve terrorism from its roots instead of tackling only the symptoms.[3]

This article comes in the agreement with Bob Elis’s critique on the US global “war on terror”. It will support Elis’ critical assertions with some additional information that proved the US counterterrorism policy would never totally eradicate terrorism. It will also provide some general recommendations for the policymakers in responding the growing global terrorism.

It is no doubt to claim that the continuation of the “War on Terror” will have a greater impact to humanity and democracy. For example, 654.965 people have reportedly died during the US military campaign in Iraq (2006 data).[4] From that figure, 601.207 deaths were due to military violence.[5] In the meantime, over 8000 civilians have died as a result of air strikes and ground battles orchestrated by US-led troops and the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.[6] Everyone must agree that this outstanding number of casualties undeniably echoes the actual threat to the fate of humanity because defending the rights of 3000 people who died in 9/11 attack does not simply allow us to kill another 6 hundred thousand.

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