Sovereignty - The Ultimate States' Rights Argument
Abstract
Much as it would be comforting to think that jihadism will wither with Osama bin Laden s demise, the opposite could well occur. Or, what about NATO s discombobulated effort to topple Moammar Gadhafi? This, too, could augur plenty more anti- American terrorism. If Gadhafi survives, watch out. If he doesn t, but his family members do, watch out. All of which should lead Americans to wonder: do we have any more coherent a policy today for dealing with anti-American violence than we did ten years ago? The answer, sadly, is no. For ten years and counting, U.S. policy has rested on the misguided notion that it is somehow possible to separate moderates from radicals, or reconcilables from irreconcilables. Washington s policy has been that if those espousing and participating in unjustifiable violence can be isolated, moderates should be wooable, and once they ve been won over the irreconcilables can be eliminated. To accomplish this, we just need to persuade moderates to stop lending extremists support. One problem with such a presumption, however, is it treats radicals and moderates as if they represent two neatly distinguishable groups of people. But, they clearly don t, not when parents and siblings can express genuine surprise when they learn it was their son, daughter, brother, sister, or husband who just martyred him or herself in a suicide attack. If family members in close quarters and tightly knit households can t tell or don t know exactly where each other is on the scale of radicalization, how can we make such a determination? More to the point, why would we ever want to base our security on the presumption that we can? Sometimes individuals make it obvious that they hold extremist views; some wear their politics on their sleeves. Others do not.Most famously, the 9/11 hijackers didn t. But also, just because someone is a moderate today does not mean that he or she can t be radicalized tomorrow.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA570318
Entities
People
- Anna Simons