EDITORIAL
Yemen attack shows U.S. following Israel’s reckless
lead
The CIA strike that killed six
alleged al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen Nov. 3 shows the United States widening
the war on terrorism to beyond Afghanistan. The lethal missile strike from an
unmanned aircraft is one more alarming sign that the United States is following
in Israel’s footsteps when it comes to foreign policy. Like Israel, the
United States is now arrogating to itself the right to attack whomever it wants
wherever it wants regardless of the rule of law.
Putting aside issues of morality for the moment, an open question
is whether Israel’s policy of assassinating suspected terrorists has made
Israel safer or has exacerbated rage and resistance, not only from those
committing violence but also from the wider Palestinian population.
The new Bush doctrine on preemptive strikes, which also copies a
page from Israeli history, is similarly problematic. If Israel’s resort to
preemptive strikes has yielded stunning military successes in some instances,
it has also manifestly failed to move the region toward peace.
Quite the contrary, Israel’s violations of international law
and its insistence on retaliating to any attack with massive force far in
excess of the initial outrage has perpetuated and enhanced the cycle of
violence.
Quite likely, most Americans will not mourn the deaths of six
al-Qaeda operatives, but, of course, without a trace or a trial we will never
be able to ascertain whether the murdered men were in fact designated
enemies.
Israel’s claim to execute only proven terrorists has been
widely challenged. A three-member United Nations human rights commission
concluded that at least some Israeli targets were not terrorists but were
people seeking peaceful resolutions to the conflict. Similar abuses are certain
to emerge as the United States follows the reckless path it is on.
There is good reason the U.S. policy had, until recently, outlawed
assassinations. Whatever goes around comes around. The dreadful course of Bush
foreign policy is making our country and its citizens, here and abroad, less
safe, not more. And it does not take advanced wisdom to understand why.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher last
week rejected comparisons between Israel’s assassinations of Palestinian
militants, which the United States has traditionally, if tepidly, criticized,
and the U.S. killing of suspected terrorists in Yemen.
Isaac Boxx, in a letter to the The New York Times last
week, wrote: “After spending millions of dollars over the last year to
convince the Arab world of America’s good intentions, the CIA sent out a
death squad to murder six men without the slightest pretense of due
process.” If we are to emerge from these days of international conflict it
can only be by teaching and modeling the rule of law, the essential and
fundamental component of any democracy. So what message do we send to the rest
of the world when we finger, indict, prosecute and execute suspected terrorists
totally outside any legal system? Are we, as a nation, in our efforts to end
terrorism, becoming terrorists ourselves? Is this the path we are on?
So far, few in this country have condemned or even commented upon
the attack in Yemen. Sweden’s foreign minister, Anna Lindh, spoke out
against it. “If the U.S.A. is behind this with Yemen’s consent, it is
nevertheless a summary execution that violates human rights,” she said.
“Even terrorists must be treated according to international law.
Otherwise, any country can start executing those whom they consider
terrorists.”
Already a backlash against American arrogance is being seen around
the world in a rising tide of anti-American sentiment. By depending on force
instead of diplomacy and the rule of law, the United States is squandering the
last vestiges of international sympathy felt by the wider world community in
the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
More operations like the attack in Yemen will only further blur
the distinction between the United States and its enemies. We can see where
Israel’s uncompromising belligerence under the Sharon government has
brought it. Is this really what the United States wants for itself?
National Catholic Reporter, November 15,
2002
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