This article has been chosen as a Making Sense of These Times
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This article zeroes in on the points the eminent historian, Sir Michael Howard, made in "Mistake to Declare this a War," a long speech posted as "a brilliant analysis of the terrorist crisis - and an indictment of its handling - which is likely to prove highly influential in this country and abroad." In the speech, Sir Michael says, "To declare that one is 'at war' is immediately to create a war psychosis that may be totally counter-productive for the objective that we seek...The use of force is no longer seen as a last resort, to be avoided if humanly possible, but as the first, and the sooner it is used the better...The qualities needed in a serious campaign against terrorists - secrecy, intelligence, political sagacity, quiet ruthlessness, covert actions that remain covert, above all infinite patience - all these are forgotten or overridden in a media-stoked frenzy for immediate results."
-Suzanne-

October 31, 2001

Al-Qaida is Winning War, Allies Warned
Tania Branigan

The eminent military historian Professor Sir Michael Howard launched a scathing attack yesterday on the continued bombardment of Afghanistan, comparing it to "trying to eradicate cancer cells with a blow torch." It had put the al-Qaida network in a "win-win situation", he told the conference, and could escalate into an ongoing confrontation that would shatter our own multicultural societies.

The longer it went on, he added, the worse the consequences would be.

"Even more disastrous would be its extension... through other rogue states, beginning with Iraq, to eradicate terrorism for good and all," he said. "I can think of no policy more likely, not only to indefinitely prolong the war, but to ensure that we can never win it."

While praising President George Bush for moving away from the unilateralism and isolationism that had characterised recent US policy, Sir Michael said the administration had made a "terrible and irreversible" mistake in calling its anti-terrorism campaign a war.

It had granted al-Qaida a status it did not deserve and created overwhelming public demand for military action.

"Many people would have preferred a police operation conducted under the auspices of the UN on behalf of the international community as a whole, against a criminal conspiracy, whose members should be hunted down and brought before an international court," Sir Michael said.

"Terrorists can be successfully destroyed only if public opinion supports the authorities in regarding them as criminals rather than heroes.

"As we discovered in both Palestine and Ireland, the terrorists have already won an important battle if they can provoke the authorities into using overt armed force."

Sir Michael, who was for many years regius professor of modern history at Oxford University, scorned the idea that al-Qaida could be defeated by the removal of the "evil genius" Osama bin Laden.

He warned: "It is hard to believe that a global network apparently consisting of people as intelligent and well-educated as they are dedicated and ruthless will not continue to function effectively until they are traced and dug out by patient operations of police and intelligence forces."

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.


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