War on terror breeds terrorism

2005-03-09 09:25

Madrid - Military strikes and draconian measures against terrorists may create even more terror, United States-based academics warned on Tuesday at a summmit here as Spain prepared to commemorate the first anniversary of the deadly train bombings in the capital.

The experts said Europe could learn from Washington's mistakes in this regard.

"Europe can learn from America's mistakes and successes. Among the successes was not to allow any religious group to dominate society. But a strong militant stance may lead to more violence," said Mark Juergensmeyer, the director of international studies at the University of California.

He was speaking to the press on the first day of a summit marking the anniversary of the March 11 2004 Madrid train bombings, where several delegates pointed to the dangers of the "war on terror" led by the United States.

Juergensmeyer said the US military's detention of Islamic militants captured in Afghanistan as "prisoners of war" at Guantanamo Bay had exacerbated the threat of extremism.

More terrorists now

Arguing that government should behave in a "counter intuitive way", he said military strikes in the aftermath of a terrorist attack were meant to appease voters. But they often played into the hands of extremists by helping them recruit more followers, he said.

Jerrold Post, a professor of psychiatry and international affairs at George Washington University, said "many terrorist acts are designed to provoke a societal backlash.

"Most strong counter terror attacks are for ensuring domestic voters that something is being done," he added. "But there is usually an increase in terrorism afterwards."

Louise Richardson, the dean of the Radcliff Institute at Harvard, said she opposed the US-led war "on Iraq precisely because I feared that it would have this effect."

"The over-arching message we want to share is that we need to ensure in our counter-terrorism strategy that our short-term efforts do not undermine our long-term objective."

Praising the response of the Spanish government, which is holding 23 suspects for the bombings, she said Europe and the United States dealt with terrorism "differently" though sharing the same aims.

About 200 delegates, including UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and about 20 heads of state and government are meeting in Madrid over four days to search for a democratic response to terrorism.

The summit is organised by the Club of Madrid, a group of ex-government leaders.

US billionaire financier George Soros, who is also attending the summit, on Tuesday told Spanish radio that Washington's strategy was dangerous because it had sparked anger around the world.

"In Iraq," he said, "there are more people wanting to kill Americans than there were before.

"These people didn't think like that before the Americans arrived and did what they did. The attitude of creating innocent victims creates terrorists. It's as simple as that."

- AFP