Japan Press Weekly

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2007 September 5 - 11 [WORLD]

6 years since 9/11 vividly prove ‘war on terror’ has failed

Akahata editorial

Six years have passed since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001.

Soon after the 9-11 attacks, the U.S. Bush administration started a “retaliatory war” against Afghanistan ostensibly to exercise the right of self-defense. The U.S. expanded and strengthened its attacks on Afghanistan, using the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in their decision to exercise the right to collective self-defense. However, the situation is growing worse with the Taliban forces making a comeback. As the Japanese Communist Party had pointed out in its letters to the world’s government leaders following the 9-11 attacks, the war of retaliation has caused “a vicious cycle of more terrorist attacks and military retaliation, leading the situation into a quagmire.”

Contrary to the U.N. Charter

The JCP has argued that in eradicating terrorism the need is to seek a resolution based on justice and reason instead of a military retaliation. The six years of developments in Afghanistan shows more clearly than ever that this argument is reasonable.

Although the allied forces consisting of the U.S. and some NATO countries have been attacking terrorist strongholds one by one, they have been able to capture neither Osama bin Laden, the leader of the international terrorist network Al-Qaeda, nor Mohammad Omar, the Taliban supreme leader. In fact, Taliban insurgents are back attacking the U.S. forces and other foreign forces throughout Afghanistan. A report on Afghanistan released by the U.N. Secretary-General in March this year describes that the “anti-government force is remarkably increasing it strength and training is being intensified.”

The “war on terrorism” has caused heavy civilian casualties in Afghanistan. The coalition forces killed 3,800 innocent people in the first two months. Last year, 230 civilians were killed. Furthermore, the number of people killed by Taliban forces in their indiscriminate terrorist attacks rapidly increased to more than 270 last year. The need now is to break the vicious circle of terrorism and military retaliation.

The U.N. Security Council did not authorize the “war of retaliation”. The UNSC resolution adopted immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 stressed that “those responsible for aiding, supporting or harbouring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these (terrorist) acts will be held accountable.” The resolution called for cooperation by U.N. member states instead of approving the war.

The U.N. Charter does not approve such a war for vengeance by the United States. The “friendly relations” declaration adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in October 1970 said, “States have a duty to refrain from acts of reprisal involving the use of force.” The U.S. “war of retaliation” undermines this historic achievement. Continuation of the war must be stopped.

The need now is to arrest terrorists and their supporters, bring them to justice, and punish them according to international law. The surest way to eradicate terrorism is to make a full-fledged international effort to eliminate poverty, the hotbed of terrorism.

Withdraw SDF from Indian Ocean

The Japanese government dispatched the Self-Defense Forces to the war zone in the Indian Ocean in response to the U.S. request. The five years of SDF operation that has supported the “war on terrorism” by refueling U.S. and its allies’ warships has only escalated the vicious circle of terrorism and military retaliation.

The SDF’s refueling operation must end since it is not based on the U.N. Security Council resolution and is in violation of the Japanese Constitution.

The anti-terrorism special measures law will expire on November 1. The struggle to block its extension or the creation of a new law bears great significance.