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Title: Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power In a Violent World by Jean Bethke Elshtain ISBN: 0-465-01910-2 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.83 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Justice is the only valid weapon
Comment: In 1998 Osama bin Laden declared war against America, denouncing US occupation of the lands of Islam in the Arabian Peninsular and the Muslim obligation to kill and plunder pagans. In the west we find it difficult to accept such language at face value but bin Laden and his followers mean it when they call westerners 'infidels'. Bin Laden and his followers also mean it when they talk of an obligation to kill as a recruitment video shown in a Finsbury, North London mosque shows disarmed enemies being decapitated with the commentary "You have to kill in the name of Allah until you are killed. Then you will win your place in paradise. The whole Islamic world should rise up to fight all the sick unbelievers. The flag of Jihad will be forever held high. Our enemies are fighting in the name of Satan. You are fighting in the name of God." Radical Islamists want to impose their official religion, through terror if necessary. The message that Jean Bethke Elshtain wants us to understand is that in bin Laden and his followers we face a new kind of enemy; that those who live in freedom must sometimes fight for the right to live in freedom; that with America's great power comes even greater responsibility; that we must fight - not to conquer - but to defend who and what we are.
The Pope's response to September 11 may be summed up in these words: "When terrorist organizations use their own followers as weapons to be launched against defenseless and unsuspecting people, they show clearly the death wish that feeds them. Terrorism springs from hatred, and it generates isolation, mistrust and closure ... Terrorism is built on contempt for human life. For this reason, not only does it commit intolerable crimes, but because it resorts to terror as a political and military means it is itself a true crime against humanity."
Martyrs die for a religious belief or cause and to claim that a martyr can be a suicide bomber or mass murderer is a corruption of the word. Terrorists are those who kill people they consider their enemy; terrorists sow terror; terror subjects its would be victims to paralyzing fear; terrorists are not interested in the subtleties of diplomacy or in compromise solutions. Terrorism is extremist and Islamist fundamentalism is extreme. The Western politics of negotiation and compromise do not work with terrorism. President Bush distinguished carefully between Islam as a great religion and terrorists who are in effect trying to highjack Islam itself. Islam is as fractured as Christianity and there seems to be no spokesman who speaks in the name of Islam. Who governs in the name of Islam? We hear continually the voice of the Islam extremists but seldom hear the voice of those who truly represent Islam.
How do you respond to those who have declared you a mortal enemy because you hold radically different views on constitutional rights, moral equality, separation of church and state, and equality of sexes? There is a great deal at stake in the current struggle, and there are values worth defending. But how we choose to defend these values is all-important, for in fighting terror that knows no limits, there are limits we ourselves must observe. That is what this book is all about - seeking the correct response to our terrorist enemy. The overwhelming reaction to September 11 was to speak of justice and that is what the author proposes - justice as represented by a blindfolded figure holding balanced scales.
Elshtain draws on Augustine to define the principles, but refers to Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr, who confronted political evil in the World War II era, to define the practice of confronting the enemy. Tillich broadcast 112 addresses into occupied Europe to help German Christians understand what the Third Reich was doing, saying that Germans had to stand against the terror and confront the Jewish question; he was clear that terror had to be fought but without hatred. Niebuhr maintained that the world must be engaged; Christians must understand that their own freedom is entangled with political realities. One cannot withdraw from responsibility by refusing to confront the inevitable moral ambiguities of politics. In his essays "Love your Enemies" and "To Prevent the Triumph of an Intolerable Tyranny" Niebuhr makes the case for struggling against a determined foe intent on our harm and destruction without hating that foe.
If you would like to learn what bin Laden and his followers are trying to do to the West and if you suspect that justice is the only valid weapon we can use to combat terrorism this is an excellent book to study.
Rating: 1
Summary: Embarrassing
Comment: Embarassingly bad, this book shows that just because your an academic, does not mean you have anything worth saying. I have three problems with this book:
1. Her arguments don't follow her line of reasoning. I will give her credit for laying out a framework to guide her arguments, though she fails to back them in my view.
2. She uses newspaper articles as primary sources. I learned in junior high school that this is a no no. I'm a little frightened that this "academic" teaches young and old people at a major university, probably "requiring" them to read this book.
3. She claims to speak from an American point of view, which seems to me that of a white, well to do perspective. Her profound lack of history and knowledge of the different cultures in this country make her arguments offensive.
Thank god for the library. I couldn't stand to have such poor writing in my house for more than two days.
Rating: 5
Summary: Cogent, well-reasoned defence of defence!!
Comment: I may well be one of the last people who should be giving this book 5 stars. First, I'm a libertarian whose generally skeptical of military action. Second, as this book is largely about just war theory in the christian tradition, it should be noted that I am a non-beleiver. This book, though, is a rarity. It is well argued, is assertive yet cautious, and unlike so many others on both sides of the issue, does not degenerate into an empty rhetorical minefield.
What the book is about is using just war theory, a system in christian ethical philosophy that aims at deciphering moral from immoral war, and applying this theory to the war on terror. The question: Why do we fight? The answer: Because if we didn't, either we or many innocents in the middle-east would experience far worse brutality than we would by intervening now. Again, while I'm skeptical of military intervention unless for the most extraordinary reasons, this book has gone far in forcing me to reconsider why we are doing what we are doing. Contrary to much propoganda, we are in fact conducting ourselves fairly, judiciously, and cautiously.
In fact, one of the most noticable things she does is to contrast the way radical islam (and she carefully contrasts this with Islam) conducts itself with the way we conduct ourselves. It is night and day. Terrorism kills indiscriminately: if you are western, you die. We are judicious and discriminate if we must kill: We kill terrorists and do everything possible to ensure that civilians live. Radical islam does not 'talk it over' before killing. We do - even if the left feels stifled when voicing opinion, they may still do so and sometimes to great effect. We use force via an organized army and recognize international statutes of war ethics. Radical islam does not. The differences go on and on.
While I remain unconvinced of the Iraq war (which this book does not address as it was written previous to it) Mrs. Elshtain's arguments on the moral reasons for us to engage in the war on terror are thoughtful, intellegent (not hot-air rhetoric like, say, Sean Hannity) and extremely insightful. It has forced me to re-examine my (former?) positioin and it may do the same for you.
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Title: Terror and Liberalism by Paul Berman ISBN: 0393057755 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations by Michael Walzer ISBN: 0465037054 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror by Bernard Lewis ISBN: 0679642811 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Great Terror War by Richard A. Falk ISBN: 1566564603 Publisher: Olive Branch Pr Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: No End to War: Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century by Walter Laqueur ISBN: 0826414354 Publisher: Continuum Pub Group Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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