The best antidote to terrorism is democracy

[struggle4progress]

By Alvaro Vasconcelos
Commentary by
Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Bombings in London and Turkey have brought to the fore the old ideas that authoritarian regimes are better equipped than democracies to combat terrorism, and that such attacks are the price we pay for liberty. For some, that is a price worth paying; for others, the costs seem too high.

But a look at the record shows that democracies possess more effective weapons to fight terror than do authoritarian regimes. Indeed, it is when democracies abandon their ethics and fail to resist the authoritarian temptation that they become weaker. <snip>

Iraq also is demonstrating the limits of illegitimate violence when combating terrorism. The Bush administration now seems to realize this. It would be a mistake to believe that the deaths of thousands of civilians, along with arbitrary imprisonment and torture, do not contribute to the spread of terror in Iraq. After all, torture victims are the best possible advertisement for terrorist recruitment. <snip>

Alvaro de Vasconcelos is director of the Portuguese Institute for Strategic and International Studies. THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=17658