A flawed strategy against terrorism

Re “Go on the offensive against terror,” Opinion, July 13

John Yoo, like the administration he served, still doesn’t get it. Al Qaeda isn’t a terrorist state, it isn’t a mafia and it isn’t a “network.” The road to defeating Al Qaeda starts by recognizing that it is an idea of Islamist solidarity and supremacy that inspires young Muslims.

Almost all of the actions the administration has undertaken since 9/11 have ignored that fact. Until we start engaging Al Qaeda ideologically we will never make any progress.

It’s clear that an important part of Al Qaeda’s lure is the notion that the ideals of the West are hypocritical, honored only in the breach, and that we are demonstrating this every day at Guantanamo Bay. We defeat that notion by showing that we do in fact live by our own ideals -- starting with the rule of law.

Yoo starts his piece by writing that those who want to close Guantanamo Bay “have no idea where the Al Qaeda prisoners should go.” We have a very good idea where they should go. We charge the prisoners, we give them a fair trial and, if the evidence shows they are guilty, we give them a fair sentence.

Chris Bennett

San Diego

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Yoo writes as if he is proposing some alternative to the Bush administration’s strategy to combat terrorism. Rather than advocating more of the same, a more appropriate question would be to ask what this heavy-handed militaristic approach has won us so far.

Now, nearly four years after 9/11 -- approximately the time it took the Allies to defeat the Axis Powers in World War II -- victory in the war on terrorism seems only more elusive.

A counterterrorism strategy based primarily on the use of military force, as outlined by Yoo, can at best provide short-term tactical victories and at worst sow the seeds of resentment that will breed tomorrow’s terrorists.

Jason Ipe

Washington