14 years after 9/11, and the War on Terror still runs on Cheney’s 1% doctrine
By Dr Adnan Siddiqui Bin Laden killed, Mullah Omar dead, Zawahiri in hiding and the alleged architect of the 9/11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Guantanamo still awaiting trial begs the question: when will the War on Terror end? A picture is worth a thousand words. Not the heartbreaking image of Aylan Kurdi, but Hungarian camerawoman Petra Laszlo kicking and tripping up refugees [1] which went viral and resulted in her being sacked. Her explanation was that she was scared and acting in "self defence". These were ironically the same words that David Cameron uttered when justifying the extrajudicial killing by drones of two British citizens in Syria [2] - and these same sentiments have continued to echo 14 years after the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden killed, Mullah Omar dead, Zawahiri in hiding and the alleged architect of the 9/11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Guantanamo still awaiting trial begs the question: when will the War on Terror end? 2,973 people were killed on September 11th and hundreds of thousands have been killed in its wake [3]. But one of the most pernicious effects has been the widespread adoption of Dick Cheney's 1% doctrine, which advocates treating any threat that has a 1% chance of being credible as a certainty and behaving accordingly. Initially, this opened the door to torture, rendition, detention-without-trial and drone attacks - and it has morphed into the area of pre-crime with PREVENT [4] and CVE policies [5]. The main beneficiaries of all these actions are not the public, who are infantilised by increasing security measures, but the security industry that thrives on public insecurity and fears. History teaches us that these measures are not new and were widely used as part of colonial policy to quell insurgencies. But the 1% doctrine means that any "threat" to the prevailing world order and mindset is targeted as an "insurgency" and met with force. This “threat” now includes movements as disparate as environmentalists to Black Lives Matter activists, and has resulted in the mass surveillance exposed by Edward Snowden and Wikileaks. On the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and with no end in sight to the War on Terror, it is worth quoting the military theoretician von Clausewitz who said: "War is politics by other means". We must remind ourselves that peace is not the absence of war, but it is based on justice and reaching equitable political solutions rather than employing security measures to placate the public and pacify "insurgents". Our collective responsibility is to ensure that politicians serve the public interest and not indulge in fear-mongering about terrorism, refugees or migrants to divert us from holding those with power to account.
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Notes: [1] Hungarian journalist Petra Laszlo fired after kicking kid, tripping up fleeing refugees: You Tube [[www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArQmFlp7xC8]\(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArQmFlp7xC8)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArQmFlp7xC8) [2] UK government admits targeted assassinations of Britons: CAGE - [[cage.ngo/article/press-release-uk-government-admits-targeted-assassinations-britons](http://cage.ngo/article/press-release-uk-government-admits-targeted-assassinations-britons)](https://cage.ngo/?p=5824) [3] Unworthy victims: Western wars have killed 4 million Muslims since 1990: Middle East Eye - [[www.middleeasteye.net/columns/unworthy-victims-western-wars-have-killed-four-million-muslims-1990-39149394]\(http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/unworthy-victims-western-wars-have-killed-four-million-muslims-1990-39149394)](http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/unworthy-victims-western-wars-have-killed-four-million-muslims-1990-39149394) [4] 10 years after 7/7 and PREVENT is not working: CAGE releases exclusive case studies: CAGE - [[cage.ngo/press-release/10-years-after-77-prevent-not-working-cage-releases-exclusive-case-studies](http://cage.ngo/press-release/10-years-after-77-prevent-not-working-cage-releases-exclusive-case-studies)](https://cage.ngo/?p=5781) [5] Lesson in hypocrisy: David Cameron’s speech at my son’s school - [[cage.ngo/article/lesson-hypocrisy-cameron%E2%80%99s-speech-my-son%E2%80%99s-school](http://cage.ngo/article/lesson-hypocrisy-cameron%E2%80%99s-speech-my-son%E2%80%99s-school)](https://cage.ngo/?p=5797)
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