This paper will discuss the subject with regards to the global war on terror and its relation to ongoing civil wars around the world. Specifically, it will try to answer and provide argument that the global war on terror provides a valid framework that can be used to understand and explain civil wars. It will also try to provide the adequate international response to civil wars and terrorism.
Before necessary discussing about the relationship and issues that surrounds these two concepts we must first give a brief and short definition on the term global war on terror and civil wars. The global war on terror refers to the effort and campaign being initiated by the United States lead by U.S. President George W. Bush and other countries to combat and eradicate terrorist and terrorist groups namely the al Qaeda lead by Osama bin Laden (Davis 2004). The goal of fighting terrorism stem from events such as the World Trade Center bombing in February 26, 1993 masterminded by the Islamic terrorists that killed six people. Other notable incidents that pushed the United States to fully combat the threat posed by terrorism are the attacks and bombing made by terrorist against U.S. embassies in the capital cities of Tanzania and Kenya. The U.S. military has also been attacked in 1985 when a truck loaded with bombs crashed into a camp manned by U.S. Marines in Beirut, Lebanon and when a suicide fast craft exploded on the side of the U.S.S. Cole (Davis 2004).
The most serious attack on U.S. soil came on September 11, 2001 when two hijacked airplanes loaded with passengers and aviation fuel crashed into the World Trade Center collapsing and literally bringing it down. This attack was part of a plan that intended to hijack airplanes and use them as flying bombs against high priority and strategic targets (Galgan 2004). Another hijacked airplane meanwhile crashed and partly destroyed the Pentagon. Other terrorist attacks that are worth mentioning are the Madrid bombing in March of 2004 and the series of bombings aimed at the transportation system that rocked London on July 7, 2005.
In the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, the Al Qaeda, a extremist Islamic group headed by Osama Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attack as part of an ongoing war against American influence and ideas. The U.S. government then demanded that the Taliban government turn over Osama and his top aides and lieutenants to the United States to stand trial but the Taliban government of Afghanistan refused. The U.S. military and other coalition forces like Britain were forced to attack and invade Afghanistan in a military operation dubbed Operation Enduring Freedom. The United States military easily defeated the Taliban forces but failed to find the top leaders of the Taliban government and the members and leaders of the Al-Qaeda (Galgan 2004). Osama bin Laden and his group were forced into hiding while evading U.S. operatives that are searching the Tora Bora mountain region of Afghanistan.
The United States also believed in the notion that Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq helped and harbored al-Qaeda and that Iraq is manufacturing and storing weapons of mass destructions (WMD). The coalition forces lead by the United States supported by Britain invaded and eventually conquered Iraq in a bloody but swift military operations capturing Saddam and his supporters and trying them for their crimes. As of today, the U.S. military and the Coalition forces are still staying in Iraq while looking for WMD and restructuring the political, economic and social framework of that country.
Civil war meanwhile refers to a conflict that involves two or more parties within the same party or country in a struggle for state, military, economic and political power. In a civil war the reasons may have different and varied means. Some civil war aims for the restructuring the political system, giving equal rights and privileges to all people, respecting and fighting for one’s freedom, ethnicity and religion (Tucker 1997). Examples of civil war initiated by ethnic diversity are the war waged by certain tribes in Angola and Rwanda while civil wars that are rooted on nationalistic ides are waged by the ETA (Euskadi Ta Auskatasuna or Basque Country and Freedom) in Spain and the LTTE (Liberation of Tamil Tigers Ealam) in Sri Lanka against the predominately Sinhalese government. Civil wars can be fought using conventional armies and regular troops that met in set piece battles such as in the American Civil war or the Spanish Civil War or it can be conducted using guerilla tactics that consist of raiding, bombing, kidnapping and other atrocities that are used to sow fear, terror and panic to the society.
In a global war on terror, terrorism is an effective method that can be used as a practical and useful tool to achieve a specific objective. Terrorism refers to the strategy of using coordinated attacks that are classified as methods unconventional warfare. Terrorist attacks are usually characterized by indiscriminate actions that targets civilians with total disregard for human life (Bensahel 2003). Terrorism can also signify attacks which are random, immoral, wanton and unjustified. Terrorists are sometimes called separatist, freedom fighters, liberators, guerilla, mujaheddin and fedayeen depending on perspective and thought of the viewer (Burke 2003).
In reading and understanding the global war on terror, terrorism and civil wars we, can see a direct relationship between global war against terrorism and the civil wars that is happening in many countries of the world. In short we can see that the global war on terror provides a valid and applicable framework that encompasses civil wars in different parts of the globe. This framework is evident because the idea of global war on terror tends to simplistically brand military actions and offensives as events that are perpetrated by terrorists. The global war on terror provides capacity and the rationalization to governments that deals with civil wars. The global war on terror therefore is a situation and a framework where all events and actions made by a group fighting in a civil war are grouped and labeled together. The global war on terror provides easy classification and categorization of acts that are labeled as terrorism just because the group is labeled as a terrorist. To clearly illustrate these significant points, let us provide valid and complete examples that would clearly emphasis this hypothesis.
The first example that will be discussed with regards to this topic is the case of Afghanistan. During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, mujaheddin and resistance fighters were recruited to deal and to fight against the Soviet forces stationed throughout Kabul and Afghanistan. After the withdrawal of the Soviet forces a movement called Taliban came to power and seized control of the capital. The Taliban movement is dominated by Pashtun and other tribes throughout Afghanistan and the North West provinces of Pakistan. In September 26, 1996, through the support of the Pakistani government, they surrounded the capital of Kabul eventually capturing it and establishing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. This government was recognized by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and the government controlled all of Afghanistan except for some areas and mountains in the north which was held by the Northern Alliance. The Taliban and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan received logistics and material support from the United Arab Emirates and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence while the royal family of Saudi Arabia annually sends 2 million dollars as funds for two major universities and six health centers that supports 4,000 orphans.
The second group that had waged a civil war against the Taliban backed government in the 1990’s is a loose and diverse group called Northern Alliance. This group is a military coalition that consists of various Afghan tribes that are united in their fight against the Taliban. The precise name for the Northern Alliance is the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan based in the northern area around Panishir. The Northern Alliance is specifically composed of five groups of mujaheddin fighters that were opposed to Taliban. These groups are the Islamic Party of Afghanistan, Islamic Party of Afghanistan, National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, Islamic Movement of Afghanistan and the Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan (Buckley 2003).
From the year 1992 up to the invasion of the United States the two factions namely the Taliban and the Northern Alliance battled in out in a bloody and prolonged civil war. The Northern Alliance controlled 10% of the whole area of the country encompassing 30% of the whole population while the Taliban controlled the capital and almost all Afghanistan except the mountainous areas in the north. Atrocities like rape, murder, indiscriminate bombing and executions of prisoners were rampant. In 2001, the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan to capture Osama and to eradicate the Taliban government using the global war on terror as precept while armed with the rationale that the Taliban government harbors terrorists and willfully aiding terrorist groups. Northern alliance forces received material and logistic supports in terms of ammunitions, weapons and food supply. The United States also used Special Ops operatives to train and to conduct attacks accompanied by Northern Alliance soldiers (Burke 2003). The U.S. military helped the Northern Alliance in their push towards the capital city of Kabul eventually ending the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
The second example that can be presented is the civil war that rages in the island of Sri Lanka where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) composed of Tamils are fighting the Sri Lankan government dominated by the Sinhalese ethnic groups. The primary aim of this group is the establishment of a independent and free state for Tamils that will be called Tamil Ealam located in the north east portion of the country. Despite its noble goals and aims, the organization has been branded as a terrorist organization because of its wanton disregard for human life when it conducts military operations against the Sri Lankan Army using car bombs, suicide bombers and sneak attacks on civilian and highly populated targets (Hogood 2005).
It is labeled as a terrorist organization by the United States, Britain, India, Australia and Malaysia while LTTE delegates were barred from attending international meetings such as the European Union. Other countries also criticized its use of suicide bombers, targeting of non military and political figures and structures. Between 1991 and 1994, the organization was responsible for the assassination of prominent political leaders such as RAjiy Gandhi, Ranasinghe Premadasa and Gamini Dissanayake (Hogood 2005). The LTTE has also actively eliminated other Tamil militant groups killing its leaders and assimilating the members of the group. The LTTE has also been criticized in its frequent attacks against civilians in incidents such as the attack on the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, train explosion in Dehiwala and the bombing of the Central Bank in Colombo (Hogood 2005).
The LTTE has also o been accused of kidnapping and “ethnically cleansing” Sinhalese and Muslim inhabitants in areas within their control. In one instance, the entire Muslim population of Jaffna on a 48 hour notice in 1990 (Hogood 2005). The organization also recruits children to serve as soldiers. As of today a ceasefire exist between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE.
In this examples we can see that the global war on terror and other plans and scheme that is aimed against terrorist provides a framework for understanding and explaining civil wars in countries such as Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. The war on terror provides for the reasoning why a particular group of people initiates a civil war. Since the war on terror highlights unique religious ethnic, ideological and nationalistic identities as causes of civil wars and internal conflict. In the case of Afghanistan, civil war was eminent when there was massive divisiveness brought about by religions differences and ethnical diversity while in the case of Sri Lanka , the problem and the main cause of the civil war was ethnic differences between the Sinhalese and Tamil segment of the population.
The global war on terror also provides for the immediate curtailment and restriction and eventually the demise of civil wars due to the elimination of one camp. Since the war on terror is fought not only in the fields, funds and financial assets that are own by a particular terrorist and participant in a civil war are frozen and sequestered by governments. Other governments can also deny entry and use of national facilities to a group if it is labeled as a terrorist group. The global war on terror greatly benefited the Northern Alliance in their fight against the superiorly armed Taliban forces. The Northern Alliance gained grounds on its offensive through the help of the U.S. military who are pursuing Osama bin Laden and his terrorist group. The global war on terror therefore ended a potential and dangerous civil war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance.
With regards to the situation in Sri Lanka, the global war on terror persuaded the LTTE to discontinue and to cease from doing terroristic activities in exchange for limited political autonomy in the regions that it occupy. The global war on terror is also effective in making known to the global community the actions by a particular group that are labeled as terroristic activities thus shaping the world opinion and forcing other governments to take actions and measures that would ensure that these acts will be prohibited and punished.
In order to combat and fully eradicate the menace of global terrorism, a valid and workable international response must be agreed and must be implemented by all countries and nations of the world. In this point the paper will discuss the different and myriad responses that can be initiated by foreign governments and the international community in minimizing the effect of terrorism. To effectively combat terrorism, there must be a total coordination and foucs with regards to government resources, manpower and materials. Pure counterterrorism is not enough and a weak deterrent in stopping terrorism since this method is just reactionary. This method puts government at a disadvantage and people and civilians at risk because terrorist must make the first move in order to be detected by the police, counter intelligence agencies and other local and international counterterrorism groups (Cordesman 2002). To combat terrorism, counterterrorism must be incorporated in a larger strategy that would create a response against the terrorist groups. Economic sanctions, legal efforts, financial and economic aids and diplomatic pressure must be incorporated in a unifying strategy that would compel or pressure countries that support terrorism or would grievously hurt organizations and companies that help terrorist groups (Cordesman 2002).
Another effective way to effectively respond against terrorism is by providing foreign aids and financial support to countries who are suffering from chronic economic instability (Duffield and Wardell 2005). This step is necessary to improve the quality of living, create enough jobs and to channel the human resources of the country thereby eliminating social problems, blurring the lines between ethnic groups thus preventing the start of a civil war. Infrastructure, basic social services and the economic state of the country must be rehabilitated so that hotbeds of terrorism and radical ideologies will never grown and flourish. Aids and financial support that tackles education that promotes peace, dignity of human life and stability can greatly benefit the society (Duffield and Wardell 2005). Terrorism and terrorist groups cannot thrive in an environment where there is no suffering, discrimination and repression. In giving foreign aid and financial support, there must be a set of guidelines and course of action that must be followed (Kepel 2004). First nations and international lending institutions must never support a “rogue” regime and government. This condition stem from the lessons of the Cold War where the United States supported authoritarian, undemocratic and repressive regimes and governments in order to woe them in not joining and cooperating with the Soviet Union. In the end however, the regimes and governments committed actions that violated the basic rights of the citizens pushing the people into taking arms and starting civil wars and internal rebellions (Maley 2003).
Another guideline that must be viewed with regards to giving financial aid and foreign support is that proper liquidation and documentation of the fund must be monitored and asses in order to curtail graft and corruption inside the government that receives the loan or financial aid. Prolonged aid to countries that do not properly allocate the funds would just result in massive government dissatisfactions and unrest making the people cling to beliefs and ideologies that would seemingly advocate freedom, economic prosperity and justice (OECD 2005). If foreign aid does not have a trickle down effect to the grassroot levels of a society, this condition would ferment discontent, frustration and eventually rebellion and ultimately civil wars. Care and policies must also be implemented so that these countries will no longer be dependent on foreign loans and aid in the future,
There are also other ways to effectively frame a response against terrorism. Countries must bolster long term stability that would require the respect for human rights, rule of law, political development and economic and social programs (OECD 2005). Donors and countries should concentrate more in developing cooperation and communication between nations to facilitate faster exchange of data and information that can prevent the spread of terrorism. Stability can also be viewed as the process wherein disputes, conflicts with regards to religion, ethnic and racial grounds can be solved using non violent means like peace talks, conventions and other forms of peace building processes.
To eliminate friction and fighting between two warring camps and parties and to avert a civil war or the formation of a terrorist group, countries must take the initiative of developing systematic agencies that would hear grievances, abuses and other human rights violations and to provide a strict penalty system like economic sanctions or trade embargoes on the offending state (Duffield and Wardell 2005). This facet of responding to terrorism is vital since it provide the people or individuals who are abused with outlets and systems that can hear their plight and eventually grant them justice.
If there are no international justice systems that would hear these kinds of cases, a group of people would have no course of action but to take up arms to defend the rights of his group. With regards to punishment and sentencing, there must be strict and definite punishment as well as the rigid implementation of the law or order. In the past, trade embargoes and economic sanctions levied against countries such as Iraq, Iran and Cuba were not successful because the offending countries used loopholes, dummy companies and other allied states as tools to circumvent these embargoes and sanctions. Aside from these, these must also be a united force that would enforce and monitor the implementation of the order of this international justice body. There must be a unilateral consensus on the proper monitoring and enforcement of these policies because statements and orders without any form of force backing it up would not be seriously taken by a nation state.
Another measure that is aimed against stopping terrorism can be started by talking and speaking to a group of people or a society about the evils and immorality of joining or supporting a terrorist organization (OECD 2005). Dialogues, information dissemination and the mass media are the primary tools that can help this kind of approach. Information, discussions must highlight the mentality that violence and radicalism in terms of religion and ideological beliefs can only lead to tension and larger conflict that can result in a civil war or a massive loss of life and property. TVs, radios, newspapers, pamphlets and the internet are tools that can reach a wide audience and viewers can be used in emphasizing the point that terrorism is counter productive and against the laws of mankind and God (OECD 2005).
To be able to combat terrorism and other factors that lead to the creation of a society that advocates civil war, a bridge must be made to reconnect fragmented portions of society torn by ethnic differences, religious affiliations and ideological variations. Bridges like shared political power and influence, respect for all views and beliefs and the freedom with regards to religion can be built that would enable two or more sectors of the society to reach out to one another and to see not their differences but to highlight and emphasis the commonality that is in them.
The global war on terror and the generic war on terror being started at the start of the 21st century do provide a framework in understanding civil wars happening in different parts of the globe. The war on terror provides the generic labeling of all acts being done in the course of a civil war as terroristic thus attracting the attention of the world and eventually the resources and manpower of these countries that would help quell and solve the root cause of a civil war. Since the mere mention of the word global war on terror invokes wanton disregards for civilian lives and indiscriminate destruction of property, civil wars associated with terrorism would make the world instantly focus its attention on these events.
Although the global war on terror is against terrorist groups, not all civil wars can be classified as war against terror since each and every armed group has a main aim or objectives such as political independence, autonomy or etc.. the only distinct classification is that terrorist groups and other armed group fighting in a civil war uses means and methods that tends not to discriminate between combatants and noncombatants, between military personnel and civilian targets.
To curb terrorism and civil wars, a proper response must put into practice. Bridging the gap between people and group of individuals, reeducation and emphasis on the futility of using terrorism to advocate a specific viewpoint are some of the measures that can be used by all governments of the world as a reply to the growing threat of these problems. Partial autonomy, unrestricted freedom of expression and other basic human rights must be respected by all governments to stamp out the seed of internal fragmentation.
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