Humanitarian Intervention: An Inquiry into Law And Morality

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Good contemporary Overview.......2007-03-16

International Humanitarian Law: Prospects, 3rd Edition, fully revised and updated edition edited by John Carey, William V. Dunlap, R. John Pritchard (International Humanitarian Law: Transnational Publishers) Excerpt: When the contributors gathered in Vienna in 1998 for the workshops that were eventually to grow into this series of volumes on the origins, challenges, and prospects of international humanitarian law, the horrendous and world-changing events of September 11, 2001, were nearly as far in the future as they are now in the past as the third and final volume goes to press.
Since that day, millions of people who had never heard of-- or at least thought much about -international humanitarian law have been bombarded daily with news and commentary that impressed its existence and importance on the public consciousness and conscience. For many, for the first time, the laws of war meant something more than "name, rank, and serial number," never a completely accu¬rate delimitation of the interrogation of prisoners of war, but close enough for pop¬ular consumption. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo soon supplanted Tamarkan ("The Bridge on the River Kwai"), Stalag Luft III ("The Great Escape"), Stalag 13 ("Hogan's Heroes"), and the eponymous Stalag 17 as the popular images associ¬ated with prisoners of war, and these real-life images--whether of the prisoners or of the guards--were grimmer than most had expected. In the popular, some¬times comedic, representations of POW camps, the guards (invariably German or Japanese) were the villains, and it came as a shock to the American national psy¬che that this could be so even when the guards were Americans.
The response of the American government was swift and predictable: It never happened. If it did happen, they were just a few isolated incidents. And anyway, they did not violate international law, because the Geneva Conventions do not apply to "terrorists." By now, we know that none of that was true. The incidents are well documented and numerous, and President Bush himself has announced that the Geneva Conventions apply to all detainees in what he proclaimed as "the war on terror," now "the long war." The apparent change in direction is due in large part to the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Harridan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. , 126 S.Ct. 2749 (2006), which not only reinforces the role of the Congress in determining United States policy but also makes clear that the Geneva Conventions do apply, to the surprise of few outside of the United States.
One can hope that the Hamdan case marks the end of a brief diversion from the history of progressive development that the law of armed conflict has been enjoying for the past century and more. It was a sharply divided Supreme Court that rebuked the President and his attempts to evade his constitutional limitations and the international obligations of the United States, but it was a rebuke nonethe¬less. It is not at all clear whether that diversion was fueled by a misreading of the end of the cold war and America's role as the "world's sole superpower," or by a exuberance at finally being in a position to put neoconservative ideas to work, or by a misguided notion of American exceptionalism, or just by a good old Texas-style I've-got-a-job-to-do-and-nothing's-gonna-stand-in-my-way attitude. Whatever prompted it, it now appears that the political appointees in the White House who have been dictating the legal analysis to the professional lawyers at the Justice Department, the Pentagon, and the State Department Legal Adviser's Office--instead of the other way round--may be getting the message. This vol¬ume, then, is coming out at a most propitious time.
It became clear soon after September 11, 2001, that the world would be look¬ing differently at international humanitarian law. What to do, then, with a vol¬ume--well under way--on the prospects of international humanitarian law. The regime of the Hague and Geneva Conventions was facing perhaps its gravest chal¬lenge ever, even while other developments--notably the creation of the Inter¬national Criminal Court--were carrying international humanitarian law in new directions. After much consideration, we decided that the new debates over Guantánamo, "enemy combatants," and the Geneva Conventions should not draw attention away from the broad range of issues addressed in this volume--the ICC, victims' rights, sanctions regimes, and ad hoc tribunals--and that it would be a disservice to sideline these discussions while reshaping the book around the Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib phenomenon. So we retained our original structure, updated the contributions, and invited a particularly respected scholar to address the new central question raised by the United States' response--Do terrorists have rights under international humanitarian law?
Leslie C. Green, among the most distinguished commentators on the law of armed conflict, answers that question with a resounding "yes" in the opening chapter, "The Relevance of Humanitarian Law to Terrorism and Terrorists" (the only essay here to have been written entirely after the events of 2001). Professor Green, after reviewing the antiterrorist conventions, the UN principles on the treatment of prisoners, international human rights treaties, the Geneva Conventions, and judicial decisions in Canada, Britain, and the United States, reaffirms the universality of humanitarian law and its application to everyone, even terrorists. If "they" had treated "our" personnel as "we" have treated "theirs" at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, he reminds us, captured offenders would have been charged with war crimes and, on conviction, would have been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment or condemned to death. Meanwhile, the Bush admin¬istration, as this volume goes to press, seems to be, gradually and grudgingly,coming around to this point of view while denying that the doctrine of command responsibility appears to lead directly to the Pentagon and the White House.
Nevertheless, in a British case that, like Hamdan, was decided too late for Professor Green to discuss, it would appear that the House of Lords has restricted the reach of international humanitarian law. The Lords held, in R. v. Jones, [2006] UKHL 16, that, in the absence of appropriate legislation by Parliament, the courts of the United Kingdom (and by extension the far-flung British Commonwealth) are powerless to recognize the authority of international law and that they lack capacity to rein in the actions of the Crown when any British Government--under cloak of the royal prerogative to wage war--commits crimes against peace or crimes against humanity. It is not open to the courts, said the Lords, even to con¬sider whether such crimes have been committed by a British Government. Thus while the power of any British Government to try enemy war criminals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, or crimes against peace has been demonstrated in the distant and not-so-distant past, its power to hold British subjects to account may be highly restricted.
Shortly after the end of the Second World War, a young Army lawyer asked the Nuremberg Tribunal to affirm, through law, the human right to live in peace and dignity. Nearly sixty years later, Benjamin B. Ferencz, who in the meantime has become one of the world's most passionate and eloquent spokesmen for inter¬national law and justice, repeats, this time to the world community, that same "Plea of Humanity to Law." Whether through ad hoc international criminal tri¬bunals, or the International Criminal Court, or the Security Council's enforcement powers--or all of the above--those who violate the international laws of human¬ity must answer for their deeds. The people of the world must send this message to their leaders--or pray that they themselves do not become the next victims.
"International criminal law in any true sense does not exist," wrote Georg Schwarzenberger (one of Leslie Green's law professors at University College, London, before the Second World War), midway through the twentieth century. At the opening of the twenty-first, the Statute of Rome went into effect, creating the world's first standing international criminal court. Even if Schwarzenberger was correct at the time, does the birth of the ICC mean that an international crim¬inal law in some true sense does now exist? What is the implication of the ICC for the concept of national sovereignty, for the state's monopoly on criminal juris¬diction, or the implication of sovereignty for the success of the ICC? In "The Creation of the International Criminal Court and State Sovereignty: 'The Problem of an International Criminal Law' Re-examined," Frederic Megret, one of Canada's outstanding international legal scholars and a former UNPROFOR "blue helmet" in Sarajevo, examines in extraordinary detail and depth these tensions and contradictions, wondering whether the ICC can ever become a defining force in global relations.
Wade Mansell of the University of Kent can muster but "Two Cheers for the International Criminal Court." He welcomes the creation of the ICC but with a caveat: One byproduct, not necessarily unintended, is a formal relegation to sec¬ond-class status of economic, social, and cultural rights, as opposed to the civil and political rights that the court will have jurisdiction to enforce. He sees this as one more step in the triumph of liberal rights over economic rights, which earlier was reflected in the decision to enforce the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by two separate international covenants and which has accelerated with the ascendancy of liberal capitalism over socialism. Why, he asks, should a fail¬ure to protect economic rights not be as much an offense as a violation of civil and political rights? Like any other international instrument, the Treaty of Rome was a product of realpolitik and idealism. As Mansell implies, there were limits to what influential countries were prepared even to consider.
In much the same way, compromises can be found in the Rome Statute's def¬initions of crimes, which define the ICC's jurisdiction. On the one hand, its def¬inition of genocide is virtually synonymous with that of the Genocide Convention and of a growing body of customary international law, but there the similarity ends. The ICC's jurisdiction over the other categories of offenses within the ICC's jurisdiction--crimes against humanity and war crimes--is severely limited by, for example, the use of such limiting words as "widespread" and "systematic," which do not appear in other international instruments and case law defining, refining, and even extending these offenses. This means, says Professor Jordan Paust, a leading scholar of international criminal law, in describing the restrictive nature of the "Crimes within the Limited Jurisdiction of the International Court," that primary competence and responsibility for prosecuting (or extraditing) those accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity continues to lie with nation-states and the international ad hoc tribunals.
As this volume goes to press, it appears that a new mixed tribunal of Cambo¬dian and international prosecutors and judges will be convened after all, ending the long period of uncertainty about that which has lain across the conscience of mankind since the 1970s. It was hard enough to persuade the international com¬munity that, as a general proposition, a Cambodian war crimes tribunal was a good idea. Once it had finally been agreed that the Khmer Rouge would be held accountable for their atrocities in Cambodia, the debate had just begun. Under whose authority would a tribunal be established--the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Cambodian government, a "third" country" a Nuremberg-style coalition? The question of venue, too, was critical, for where a tribunal sits bears heavily on cost, political interference, witness protection, and the message that the trials would send to the survivors. Questions of temporal and personal jurisdiction--which crimes and which persons are to be prosecuted--may be influenced as much by raw politics as by notions of justice. In "Designing Justice for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge," Craig Etcheson, who helped found and then directed the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, examines these "practical issues" that will face the organizers of every future ad hoc tribunal.
In the spring of 1999, as NATO forces launched an intensive humanitarian intervention to suppress the ethnic cleansing and other large-scale violations of international humanitarian law in Kosovo, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia brought eleven actions in the International Court of Justice, asking the court to find that members of NATO had violated their obligations under the UN Charter. As it was undisputed that NATO forces were attacking Yugoslavia, what was the legal justification? Given that the UN Security Council had not specifically authorized this particular intervention, was this no more than regional vigilante justice? The ICJ has since dismissed all the cases on jurisdictional grounds, so the question remains judicially unresolved. One possible answer lies with the ICTY, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. In "NATO's Attack on Yugoslavia: The Deputation of an Ad Hoc International Constabulary," Paul Rutkus, lecturer of international criminal law at Carleton University, explores whether the Security Council could have delegated a measure of Chapter VII peacemaking authority to the ICTY, which in turn could have authorized NATO's member states to assist the Tribunal in protecting victims and witnesses, secur¬ing evidence and crime scenes, and detaining suspects and surrendering indictees for trial.
Economic sanctions, originally conceived as measures of international col¬lective coercion short of military force and as mechanisms for enhancing the role of the less-powerful but peaceable states, have proved to be highly controversial. They have been denounced as genocide and as institutionalized racism, and, says Paul Conlon, the United Nations in recent years has spent as much effort miti¬gating the effects of its own economic sanctions as it has enforcing them. Dr. Conlon, a former official of the United Nations Centre against Apartheid and of the Security Council's Iraq Sanctions Committee, suggests that sanctions as they have been applied violate the principles and goals of international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, concerning civilian populations. Sanctions, he suggests, should be administered with humanitarian considerations and general legal principles in mind. Proportionality, for example, dominates every legal discussion of military reprisal but seldom enters into the evaluation of sanctions--either their enforcement or humanitarian measures to mitigate their effects. With well over half a million deaths in Iraq caused by U.S.-led UN sanc¬tions between 1991 and 2003, it is easy to argue that proportionality must rein in what can be permitted in the name of international law or international politics. Dr. Conlon proposes not only adapting sanctions regimes to humanitarian law but also "Adapting Traditional Humanitarian Law to Sanctions."
Until the mid-twentieth century (and in some countries, such as Japan, even to this day) individuals were generally regarded exclusively as objects, rather than subjects, of international law, enjoying no personal rights and holding no obliga¬tions. Perpetrators of war crimes, in the broad sense, have marked a sharp excep¬tion to the rule, as they (sometimes) can be brought to personal justice under the Geneva Conventions and the Nuremberg principles. Avril McDonald suggests that the perpetrators' victims, too, are now beginning to find recognition in the international criminal justice system. Though the statutes of the ad hoc tribunals made little or no effort to accommodate the interests of the Yugoslav and Rwandan vic¬tims of those atrocities, the Statute of the ICC has integrated victims into the process by requiring their interests to be considered at every stage--by the pros¬ecutor, the Pre-Trial Chamber, the Trial Chamber, and the Appeals Chamber. Significantly, victims may make submissions directly to the court. In "The Devel¬opment of a Victim-Centered Approach to International Criminal Justice for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law," Dr. McDonald, an IHL scholar at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut and editor of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, suggests that this is a good start but that a great deal more remains to be done, especially regarding reparations.
As the volume ends, so does the series--as it began--with R. John Pritchard examining British war crimes trials in the aftermath of past wars, in the hope that these experiences might offer some insight into the implications of how such tri¬als may be conducted today or in the future. In "The Parameters of Justice: The Evolution of British Military and Civil Perspectives on War Crimes Trials and Their Legal Context," Dr. Pritchard, one of the most prolific and distinguished historians of war crimes trials, concludes that concerns about fairness to perpe¬trators gave way to political expedience and haste in the disposition of clemency, displacing concern for victims and justice and ultimately poisoning Britain's rela¬tionship with Germany, Italy, and especially Japan after the Second World War. As we face the winding down of the International Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda and other ad hoc tribunals, who is going to govern the administration of clemency and parole when the judges are no longer there? Will the prisoners be in the hands of some other legal authority, or will these important questions of justice fall to politicians?
* * *
In the meantime, the scope and concerns of international humanitarian law continue to grow. The Bush administration may, paradoxically, have strengthened the IHL regime through its efforts to disregard the Geneva Conventions. Public disgust at efforts to deny or condone torture and inhumane treatment, combined with a pragmatic recognition that U.S. soldiers taken prisoner elsewhere in the world could be on the receiving end of such treatment, reinforced in the public mind the need for binding international rules of war. Indeed, it was military lawyers who led the opposition, within government and without, against the administration's efforts to undercut the Geneva Conventions.
Will the public support of the Geneva Conventions translate into similar sup¬port for the International Criminal Court? There is no logical reason that it must. The United States has long been legally bound by the Geneva Conventions, and the reciprocal benefits they provide are, or so one might have thought until recently, beyond questioning. The debate over the ICC, on the other hand, is whether tosign on to a new venture, and whether the benefits are worth the costs. The reci¬procity that is inherent in the Geneva regime does not, as Frédéric Mégret observes, become a factor in the ICC regime unless the United States chooses to join, which is the very issue being debated. Nevertheless, the experience with the Geneva Conventions may have awakened the American public to the importance of international cooperation and the difficulty, even futility, of trying to go it alone, "sole superpower" or not.
Through all this, the scope of international humanitarian law continues to grow. War-crimes victims caught in the seemingly faceless and unfeeling justice system, and innocent civilians trapped in the squeeze of the sanctions regime, have caught the attention of the IHL theorist. Women suffer disproportionately in war--particularly in modern social conflict, where the battlefields are not well defined--and have found little justice in the legal system for the sexual violence systematically directed at them. Kelly Askin, in Volume II--Challenges--looks at the jurisprudence of the Rwandan and Yugoslav ad hoc tribunals and finds cause for hope.
Therein lies the importance of books like these and the essays they comprise. Grand projects have grown out of a single writing. Henri Dunant's Souvenir de Solferino was the conception of the modern law of armed conflict, as we used to call international humanitarian law, and the Genocide Convention was adopted in 1948 and entered into force in 1951, just a few years after Rafael Lemkin coined the word in 1944 in Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. In fields that are, like law, by nature practical, theory often develops a bad name, especially when the practi¬tioners or the victims cannot see that the theory describes a real problem and, sometimes at least, offers a real-world solution. These essays are rooted in real¬ity and may even change that reality for the better.

The Morality of War: Classical and Contemporary Readings

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The Morality of War: Classical and Contemporary Readings
Larry May , Eric Rovie , and Steve Viner
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0131487701

Book Description

Incredibly interesting and timely, this is the only collection of its kind on the market today: it provides both the most significant historical writings on the morality of war as well as the best contemporary theoretical writings and concrete discussions of wars in the last five years. Many voices are presented, including those from Islam, covering such issues as self-defense, preemptive war, torture, pacifism, and terrorism, making it relevant to today’s readers. An excellent study of the ethics of war for anyone interested in how the ideals of war developed and how they continue to shape the world as we know it.

Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality, Modernity

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A Great, quick read and a new insight on international terrorism.
Must Read
Fresh and insighful yet convoluted

Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality, Modernity
Faisal Devji
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0801444373

Book Description

What are the motives behind Osama bin Laden's and Al-Qaeda's jihad against America and the West? Innumerable attempts have been made in recent years to explain that mysterious worldview. In Landscapes of the Jihad, Faisal Devji focuses on the ethical content of this jihad as opposed to its purported political intent. Al-Qaeda differs radically from such groups as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah, which aim to establish fundamentalist Islamic states. In fact, Devji contends, Al-Qaeda, with its decentralized structure and emphasis on moral rather than political action, actually has more in common with multinational corporations, antiglobalization activists, and environmentalist and social justice organizations. Bin Laden and his lieutenants view their cause as a response to the oppressive conditions faced by the Muslim world rather than an Islamist attempt to build states.

Al-Qaeda culls diverse symbols and fragments from Islam's past in order to legitimize its global war against the "metaphysical evil" emanating from the West. The most salient example of this assemblage, Devji argues, is the concept of jihad itself, which Al-Qaeda defines as an "individual duty" incumbent on all Muslims, like prayer. Although medieval Islamic thought provides precedent for this interpretation, Al-Qaeda has deftly separated the stipulation from its institutional moorings and turned jihad into a weapon of spiritual conflict.

Al-Qaeda and its jihad, Devji suggests, are only the most visible manifestations of wider changes in the Muslim world. Such changes include the fragmentation of traditional as well as fundamentalist forms of authority. In the author's view, Al-Qaeda represents a new way of organizing Muslim belief and practice within a global landscape and does not require ideological or institutional unity.

Offering a compelling explanation for the central purpose of Al-Qaeda's jihad against the West, the meaning of its strategies and tactics, and its moral and aesthetic dimensions, Landscapes of the Jihad is at once a sophisticated work of historical and cultural analysis and an invaluable guide to the world's most prominent terrorist movement.

Customer Reviews:

A Great, quick read and a new insight on international terrorism........2007-03-20

This is a pretty good book with a few flaws. It has four main points.

1. Islamic terrorism is done as an ethical end in itself with vague political intentions.

2. Jihadists have failed to change politics in their home countries, so they get the international media's attention with violent attacks, and thus try to project responsibility for these local failures onto foreign (democratic) people that it is their responsibility to address the local political problems the jihadists have failed at.

3. Islamic terrorism is a disorganized movement that spreads organically--new cells are created by small, inspired groups...there is no hierarchy and no dogma...only the belief in suicide bombing against Westerners and secularists as a good deed.

4. Jihadism is historically divorced from other Islamic movements because it scorns the authority of ulama and because the individual terrorists have vastly differing individual beliefs. Its message is, in part, that each Muslim can interpret doctrine his own way, without a Qadi or other official to direct his beliefs.

However, there are a few problems with the book.

1. First of all, 75% of Devji's sources are interviews with bin Laden and al-Zawahiri from 1998, or 2001 interviews. He needs to interview a greater variety of jihadists in order to have a better picture.

2. Second, he completely ignores the situation in Iraq. Since 2003, the number of suicide attacks in Iraq has been vastly greater than those anywhere else in the past 10 years. And I would guess that the majority of those attacks have a specific goal--an Islamic state in Iraq. It's suspicious and statistically ridiculous to overlook Iraq.

All in all, he explains international terrorism well, but not local terrorism in places like Iraq or Palestine--which have specific political aims.

Must Read.......2006-04-13

Since the previous reviewer has done an excellent job summarizing this complex, dazzling, often exhilirating book, I should just say that I was really struck by Devji's writerly gifts that make layered arguments accessible to a lay reader such as myself.

Fresh and insighful yet convoluted.......2006-03-22

How did Islam become a global phenomenon in Al-Qaeda's Jihad? This is the question that Faisal Devji seeks to address in his Landscapes of the Jihad. Devji argues that while violence is certainly the most visible part of Al-Qaeda's jihad, it should be taken into consideration with a "world of ethical, sexual, aesthetic, and other forms of behaviour" (xvi). Devji avoids attempting explaining contemporary Jihad as the result of political or nationalistic motivations. Instead, he argues that while Jihad is indeed meant to accomplish certain ends, it has become more ethical that political in nature. For example, Al-Qaeda, unlike the image portrayed by media in the west, actually has no "coherent vision or plan for the future" (4). Thus, it is absurd to suggest that Al-Qaeda's motivations stem from oppressive or disturbed conditions in the Muslim world. Indeed, most of the fighters in Al-Qaeda are actually privileged and inexperienced middle-class youth, who never had any experience of such conditions, choosing instead to "battle in more exotic locations like Bosnia, Chechnya, and Afghanistan" (4).

Devji believes it is high time scholarship began to distinguish global Jihad from local struggles. For Devji, Jihad today has become so globalized that it can be compared to environmental groups, supporters of disarmament, anti-abortion groups, etc. (12). Furthermore, contrary to popular views that all members of Al-Qaeda espouse a single school of Islamic law or thought, Devji shows that there instead exists a kind of pluralism, one that is accepting of "Arabs and non-Arabs, including even the Chinese" (16). Thus, some of the hijackers on September 11 were not averse to consuming alcohol, gambling in Las Vegas, or even attending lap-dances in clubs just a few days before their suicide missions (17). Devji explains such behaviour not as "schizophrenic" or "incongruous," but as "yet another sign of the disintegration of old-fashioned distinctions, whether religious or political, in a universe of global effects that is best represented by the mass media"-a theme that is repeated throughout the book (91). In addition, despite claims made by the popular media, Al-Qaeda has "no formal procedure of recruitment or indoctrination, not even by way of sleepers who supposedly lurk in mosques to trap the unwary martyrs of tomorrow" (20). As a result, the new Jihad is a series of global effects that subverts traditional forms of Islamic devotion.

Devji dismisses Osama Bin Laden's statements about Americans having a "government within the government," as conspiracy theories-something that Osama could have picked up while watching "a television show like the X-Files or a film by Oliver Stone" (6). However, it might be erroneous to dismiss Osama so simply since covert and surreptitious operations by the Americans to overthrow regimes, to cover up "blowbacks" or to support other unsavoury operations have been quite well documented. Furthermore, Devji points out that while most scholarship, and even the media, remains fixated specifically upon Sunni Islam and Middle East, "the most successful examples of political Islam have been revolutionary Iran and the Hezbollah in Lebanon, both [of which are] Shia movements" (21). Similarly, Devji criticizes scholars for not noticing that most Jihad today "happens to be based fore the most part outside the Middle East...among populations that have barely an inkling of Salafi or Wahhabi conditions" (21). The fact that they have Arab fighters or funding from Salafi or Wahhabi groups is not sufficient to convince Devji of the resulting nature of the Jihad there: "That the reverse might be true, with Arab fighters and financiers importing the jihad from these regions to the Middle East, is not seriously considered" (22). Despite these criticisms, Devji provides little convincing evidence to prove otherwise, mentioning insignificant movements such as the Tablighi Jamaat and the fundraising activities of Ayatullah Sistani in Iraq.

Another popular notion that Devji addresses in his work is the idea that Al-Qaeda is a puritan organization, inspired by Salafi and Wahhabi principles, and is therefore vehemently against Sufi or Shia practices. Instead, Devji shows that within Al-Qaeda such genealogies and structures have broken down, and that there exists a synthesis of various practices. For example, certain practices in the Al-Qaeda compare favourably with Sufi or mystical brotherhoods, "even if these happen to be disapproved by members of the movement itself" (42). There are also elements of mysticism that are frequently invoked, as well as Shia practices venerating the Prophet and his family. Devji points that there even is a tradition of the mahdi or messiah, as evidenced by Juhayman al-Utaibi's claim when he captured the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979 (48). Devji also explains why Hollywood movies (such as the Long Kiss Goodnight) are accepted as fact against news reports-"simple political intentions no longer suffice to explain events in a global landscape" (89).

The last half of Devji's book draws heavily from letters by Bin Laden, which present him as an erudite and well-informed man, not a radical and misinformed terrorist. For example, Bin Laden clearly explains Islam's right to Palestine based upon the faith's universality while making Muslims true heirs of the Jewish and Christian traditions (85). Indeed, there are even echoes to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 in one of Osama's statements. Ultimately, Devji's book offers fresh and new insights towards understanding Jihad today. A sorely needed book, it breaks the vicious cycle of tired and hackneyed arguments that one so often reads in the common media today while providing compelling insight into what is rightly now a global phenomenon.

Taking America Back: A Radical Plan to Revive Freedom, Morality, and Justice

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A great book that strips away political correctness and focuses on what is destroying America
Joseph Farah hits a home run!
Finger on the pulse
More jingoist claptrap
Let the Revolution Commence!

Taking America Back: A Radical Plan to Revive Freedom, Morality, and Justice
Joseph Farah
Manufacturer: WND Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1581824696

Book Description

According to Joseph Farah, Americans are faced with an unresponsive and unaccountable one-party political system, an establishment propaganda machine posing as a free press, and cultural institutions—educational, charitable, entertainment, religious, medical, and others—seduced by the materialist gods of an all-powerful secular state. Even more important, the crisis this represents cannot be resolved through the political system by electing new politicians to office. A much more profound, long-term, and fundamental shift if needed, one that rejects the validity of the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-controlling state and affirms the values upon which the American nation was founded.

Taking America Back is thus about freedom, the freedom the founding generation of leaders fought for in establishing the United States. Farah shows how, as a nation, we have moved from being freedom fighteres to comfort lovers, and he calls for all Americans to realize where our present state of affairs is taking us. It is time to choose the kind of country in which we want to live, whether we want to live under the rule of law or under the rule of judicial government and a constitution that is a "living document," which for all practical purposes means living without a constitution. According to Farah, "The choice is simple: the world of standards and morality, of marriage, order, the rule of law, and accountability to God or the world of anything goes, aberrant behavior, do-your-own-thing lifestyles, and moral codes that change with the speed of the latest public opinion polls."

How can Americans take back their nation? The author says the only way we can reestablish our freedom—our God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—is to break the hammerlock of statism and the notion that moral relativism holds the answers to ordering people's passions and behavior.

Taking America Back exposes the weaknesses in America's current political and cultural systems and offers practical solutions—solutions that are real and doable—that can revive freedom, decency, and justice in our nation.

Customer Reviews:

A great book that strips away political correctness and focuses on what is destroying America.......2006-09-09

A straight forward well developed book that defines the problems facing America, the causes, and offer solutions other than just complaining about the problems. A non-partisan, both parties are accomplices to the destruction according to Farah, attack on the current political environment of the country.

An easy read which can be finished in a few sittings and will inspire you to help fix the problems facing the country rather than grieve over them.

Joseph Farah hits a home run!.......2006-07-25

I simply loved this book. The main thing about Taking America Back is that it's fast moving. I have a very short attention span and it is hard for me to concentrate. But I read this book cover to cover on the second day of the Great St. Louis Storm of July, 2006. This is a great compliment to Mr. Farah. He is a very prolific writer who can process information quickly.

Joseph really takes on what's wrong with our nation. The teacher's union, the government schools, the foreign aid, internationalism, paganism, the declining culture and more.

He cites various case examples which I really enjoyed. One was how mini-Statues of Liberty at Ellis Island are on sale there which were made in Mainland China. Joe cites the human rights abuses in China related to the Tiananmen Square debacle. This might have been the single most moving point in the book.

There are a few tiny things that need to be cleaned up in Taking America Back. For one, China has officially changed its one child policy (page 4) since this brilliant book was published. Joe is a great defender of the weak and he is standing up for Chinese children, especially the little girls who for many decades have been the victims of gendercide. This only serves to show you Joseph's character. He's a good man speaking up for those who cannot speak up for themselves.

Beyond that, Joe and the editors repeated almost verbatim the same information about Hollywood's relationship with Church film review boards on two separate, but closely numerated pages. (Between pages 8 and 11).

These things are really small potatoes, but the book is otherwise perfect.

There are a few things Mr. Farah will probably further explore in the next edition of Taking America Back.

For example:

Holding on to the U.S. military base at Diego Garcia might be a very good idea, since it's in the middle of nowhere in the Indian Ocean and has great strategic value. (Page 81).

America will never allow North and South Korea to reunite, (Page 80) because they would become an amazing military superpower overnight that might threaten Japan. This based on their mutual hatred of Japan because of the 1909 - 1945 Imperial War Crimes committed in Korea. (Both North and South).

Joseph makes a terrific point about the need in the U.S. for civil defense. Our government's first job, correctly notes the author, is to protect America and its citizens. (Meaning you and I).

Joe also pins the tail on the donkey by citing a former U.N. leader who sold arms to the Hutus in Rwanda just before that terrible genocide unfolded. He's a very, very meticulous journalist. This kind of information makes the book special.

Other issues like taxes, crime and self-government are also covered to the nth degree.

There were a few too many quotes from the Founding Fathers for my taste. But they were important. It's just that for me personally, I couldn't wait to hear what Mr. Farah had to say next ... that's actually more praise than criticism.

Joseph is correct in lamenting "misguided" Christians and rightists who don't think as he does, but he is doing a good job of educating them with this book.

However, his terminology might be a bit strong. No one likes to have critical tidbits tossed their way, especially the fat, stupid, lazy, lily-white American Evangelical Middle Class. White evangelical Christians have more abortions, watch more pornography and divorce at a higher rate than the general public. Joseph tries to nudge them to action.

Mr. Farah has also called for all decent Americans to take their children out of the government schools. As a teacher who has taught at every level from Pre-K to university, I couldn't agree with Joseph in a stronger sense.

However, I have learned more from the so-called "lost" public school students (especially here in the elite suburbs of St. Louis, Mo.) about the true meaning of kindness and forgiveness (major Christian themes) than I ever did while teaching at a "Christian" university like Baylor.

Engaging the culture is important at all levels. We are all at different levels spiritually. Who is to say what God's plan is for each person? Christians can learn much from "the lost." At least that's been my experience. Parents here in Ladue and Huntleigh know there isn't much difference in the cultural norms of the students at public, private, Catholic or Protestant/Evangelical schools. This is not to be critical. It's just that our cultural decline overwhelms both education and politics.

Yet it should be duly noted that the souls and minds of our children are in mortal danger in government schools and via the culture. I suppose it depends on one's approach to meeting that challenge. Joe also defends home schooling and who can argue with that?

Mr. Farah calls first and foremost for Americans to pray and repent. This is something I will devote my life to, based on being inspired by this very book.

The name Joseph means "blessed" (it was my late mother Viola's favorite boy's name) and he is indeed being a spiritual blessing to others by challenging all Americans to seek goodness and repentance.

All in all, I must say again that this is a terrific book. Buy a copy or buy ten, and give them away as Christmas presents.
Joesph Farah is the George Washington of the internet news business with Wnd.com and this book is a special feather in his cap.

I salute him as a great and patriotic American -- a maverick in the truest sense. He is a pro-Israel, Arab journalist who is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in.

Most importantly, what he believes in seems to be right for America.

Finger on the pulse.......2006-04-28

An "on target" overview of the problems we now face and a direct approach to rectifying the situation. He puts into words what most of us want to say. A good read for true Americans

More jingoist claptrap.......2006-02-23

And for a second I thought I was going to read a book that challenged me with some dynamic ideas. All I got out of it was just some crotchety conservative waxing nostalgic about the days when America was 80-90% white christians.

So far the only thing I agree with Farah was the disgust of our consumerist culture, that is true. But it was just yet another right-wing chest thumper proclaiming about how America must become a theocracy. The typical "We need to bring this country back to god!" and "America was founded on Judeo Christian values"

Guys, just what are you implying when you say this? Do you want to kick the rest of us nonbelievers out of your new blessed christian country? Are we not good enough for you? Does God favor white christian republicans more than others? Do you honestly believe America's christian heritage is under attack? I come from straight out of the Bible Belt(South Carolina) and I can tell you Christian culture and values are not going anywhere.

And I can also tell you us "heathens" aren't going anywhere either. Quit blowing the "plight" of your sacred ways out of proportion. Was this country founded on christian principles by god-fearing men? Maybe, but Jefferson put the seperation of church and state there for a reason. If the day comes when government troops kick down your door and confiscate your Bibles and arrest you for illegal religious practices, I'll take your arguments seriously.

Let the Revolution Commence!.......2005-12-12

Taking Back America should be read by every American. Mr. Farah is right. This country was founded on judeo-christian beliefs, there are many statements and writings by our founding fathers that prove they were God fearing men. They also explained that government was suppossed to be by the people for the people. Our form of goverment was not formed to take care of us. We the people are supposed to take care of the government. I have read some of the negative reviews on Taking America Back, and it is the typical name calling rhetoric that the socialist left like to play. Mr. Farah has done an excellent job at describing todays problems and gives an excellent arguement, backs it up by using the Constitution and Bill of Rights to get right at the cancer that is eating this country alive. If you want less taxation, more control over your life, and believe in traditional family values this book is for you. If you think governmet should be taking care of you and your happy with socialistic direction our country is headed, don't bother. Mr. Farah's approach may be radical but, in radical times you need radical means to overcome.

Public and Private in Thought and Practice: Perspectives on a Grand Dichotomy (Morality and Society Series)

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A wonderful treatment of a fascinating subject

Public and Private in Thought and Practice: Perspectives on a Grand Dichotomy (Morality and Society Series)

Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0226886239

Book Description

These essays, by widely respected scholars in fields ranging from social and political theory to historical sociology and cultural studies, illuminate the significance of the public/private distinction for an increasingly wide range of debates. Commenting on controversies surrounding such issues as abortion rights, identity politics, and the requirements of democratization, many of these essays clarify crucial processes that have shaped the culture and institutions of modern societies.

In contexts ranging from friendship, the family, and personal life to nationalism, democratic citizenship, the role of women in social and political life, and the contrasts between western and (post-)Communist societies, this book brings out the ways the various uses of the public/private distinction are simultaneously distinct and interconnected. Public and Private in Thought and Practice will be of interest to students and scholars in disciplines including politics, law, philosophy, history, sociology, and women's studies.

Contributors include Jeff Weintraub, Allan Silver, Craig Calhoun, Daniela Gobetti, Jean L. Cohen, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Alan Wolfe, Krishan Kumar, David Brain, Karen Hansen, Marc Garcelon, and Oleg Kharkhordin.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful treatment of a fascinating subject.......1997-01-22

This book is terrific: for a serious treatment of all of the implications of the public/private distinction, this book has it all. Indeed, Jeff Weintraub's essay, "The Theory and Politics of the Public/Private Distinction" is worth several times the cover price alone. Revealing astounding erudition and producing penetrating insights, Weintraub clearly and patiently shows us how many commonly understood notions of the public/private distinction are wrong and why. To sit at Weintraub's intellectual table is to be guaranteed a delicious feast -- as readers of this volume will quickly find out. Buckle up as Weintraub takes you from Smith to Gellner to Jane Jacobs to Aristotle to Durkheim and way beyond; for any lover of ideas, his essay and the others in this collection are a real treat

Kant and the Experience of Freedom: Essays on Aesthetics and Morality

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Found it helpful in writing my Philosophy thesis

Kant and the Experience of Freedom: Essays on Aesthetics and Morality
Paul Guyer
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521568331

Book Description

This collection of essays by one of the preeminent Kant scholars of our time transforms our understanding of both Kantâ€™s aesthetics and his ethics. Guyer shows that at the very core of Kantâ€™s aesthetic theory, disinterestedness of taste becomes an experience of freedom and thus an essential accompaniment to morality itself. At the same time he reveals how Kantâ€™s moral theory includes a distinctive place for the cultivation of both general moral sentiments and particular attachments on the basis of the most rigorous principle of duty. Kantâ€™s thought is placed in a rich historical context including such figures as Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume, Burke, Kames, as well as Baumgarten, Mendelssohn, Schiller, and Hegel. Other topics treated are the sublime, natural versus artistic beauty, genius and art history, and duty and inclination. These essays (half being published for the first time) extend and enrich the account of Kantâ€™s aesthetics in the author's earlier book, Kant and the Claims of Taste (1979).

Customer Reviews:

Found it helpful in writing my Philosophy thesis.......2000-01-19

I found this extremely helpful in writing my thesis on the moral worth of actions done out of mixed motives in Kant's moral theory. I remember this book providing keen insight into how freedom is possible in Kant's theory and how that links up to the possibility of actions having moral worth even when the will is somehow influenced by nonmoral concerns.

In the Wake of Terror: Medicine and Morality in a Time of Crisis (Basic Bioethics)

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In the Wake of Terror: Medicine and Morality in a Time of Crisis (Basic Bioethics)
Jonathan D., Ed. Moreno
Manufacturer: MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0262134284

Book Description

Timely and provocative essays on bioethical questions brought to the forefront by the bioterrorist threat.

Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality (Clarendon Paperbacks)

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Over-rated
How- to for the end of liberal society
A defense of perfectionism

Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality (Clarendon Paperbacks)
Robert P. George
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0198260245

Book Description

Contemporary liberal thinkers commonly suppose that there is something in principle unjust about the legal prohibition of putatively victimless immoralities. Against the prevailing liberal view, Robert P. George defends the proposition that `moral laws' can play a legitimate, if subsidiary, role in preserving the `moral ecology' of the cultural environment in which people make the morally significant choices by which they form their characters and influence, for good or ill, the moral lives of others. George shows that a defence of morals legislation is fully compatible with a `pluralistic perfectionist' political theory of civil liberties and public morality.

Customer Reviews:

Over-rated.......2006-04-26

Mr. George spends a great deal of time and effort justifying meanness, cruelty, and bone-headed, stupifying insanity. He fears the different among us, those who do not conform to his tired, old-hat definitions of what is good and moral. Hatred is not a traditional value, Mr. George.

How- to for the end of liberal society.......2004-04-13

The good Professor has presented a book that argues it is justified to use criminal law to protect men from themselves. J.S. Mill laid out the basic argument more than 150 years ago that the state has no right to intervene in ones life unless a person's behaviour poses a serious harm to others. That harm must be real, not based on whether speech or action offends others.

I would suggest that right wing readers, who believe in imposing ones values and morality on others will enjoy this book. For students of Mill I would suggest you pass unless you want to "know thy enemy", in which case I would recommend the library. Then you can donate the money you save to the ACLU or CCLA.

A defense of perfectionism.......2000-12-10

This book is a strong response to the widely held view that morality as such cannot be enforced by the law. According to Prof. George, society may legitimately seek to "make men moral" as long as the moral sentiment expressed is legitimate. The last qualification is important, because it does set a limit on how far the law may go in interfering with personal autonomy. Therefore, we can say that it is premised on a natural law foundation, which is foreign to most people today. Most of the arguments are made in the course of criticizing the opposing views of some heavyweight philosophers like Ronald Dworkin, John Rawls, and Joseph Raz. Especially good is a chapter on the famous debate between H.L.A. Hart and Patrick Devlin. Though George's position is closer to that of Devlin, he does a good job explaining how Devlin's views are in many ways deficient and incompatible with a free society. This is a fine book no matter what your political views, though it does help to have a background in political and moral philosophy to fully grasp the arguments.

Beyond the new morality: The responsibilities of freedom

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Beyond the new morality: The responsibilities of freedom
Germain Gabriel Grisez
Manufacturer: University of Notre Dame Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Ethics & Morality | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0268006636

Citizen Speak: The Democratic Imagination in American Life (Morality and Society Series)

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Citizen Speak: The Democratic Imagination in American Life (Morality and Society Series)
Andrew J. Perrin
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226660818

Book Description

When we think about what constitutes being a good citizen, routine activities like voting, letter writing, and paying attention to the news spring to mind. But in Citizen Speak, Andrew J. Perrin argues that these activities are only a small part of democratic citizenship—a standard of citizenship that requires creative thinking, talking, and acting.
For Citizen Speak, Perrin met with labor, church, business, and sports organizations and proposed to them four fictive scenarios: what if your senator is involved in a scandal, or your police department is engaged in racial profiling, or a local factory violates pollution laws, or your nearby airport is slated for expansion? The conversations these challenges inspire, Perrin shows, require imagination. And what people can imagine doing in response to those scenarios depends on what’s possible, what’s important, what’s right, and what’s feasible. By talking with one another, an engaged citizenry draws from a repertoire of personal and institutional resources to understand and reimagine responses to situations as they arise. Building on such political discussions, Citizen Speak shows how a rich culture of association and democratic discourse provides the infrastructure for a healthy democracy.

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