A panel of government, legal and Middle Eastern political specialists gathered at the Law School yesterday to discuss America's response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"If this is the first battle in a new war against terrorism, this battle may have been the most costly in our history ...Only now are we beginning to understand the enormity of the assault," said the panel moderator, U.S. Col. Rick Rosen in his opening statement.
"Now we must decide how the country will respond to these attacks," he said.
The panel consisted of Rosen, former Deputy Secretary of State and Ambassador David D. Newsom, and the former U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait, W. Nathaniel Howell.
Three University professors also participated in the panel. Philip D. Zelikow, director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs, Ruhi Ramazani, a former Government and Foreign Affairs chairman, and John Norton Moore, director of the Center for National Security Law, contributed their thoughts.
Newsom opened the program by discussing the political ramifications of the attack and proposing several alternatives for action.
Citing the nation's "imperial reach" as a cause for antipathy directed toward Americans, Newcom said, "We cannot assume that the attitudes and actions represent the whole world of Islam, but instead flow out of wider currents of resentment ... directed at the West and particularly the U.S."
Newcom also suggested several responses U.S. policymakers should consider.
"We must be prepared to accept diplomacy from all nations," and "do away with characterizing entire nations as terrorist or rogue," he said.
Stressing the importance of diplomacy over hasty military action in eliminating the threat of terrorism, Howell, the evening's second speaker, said patience, "good intelligence and cooperation" are essential.
"The nation is understandably focused on events and our reaction to them, but the saturation of the media skews perceptions ... We shouldn't be stampeded by emotion," Howell said.
To solve the problem, the nation "must separate [the terrorists] from the public sympathy they're trying to cultivate," he added.
Despite expressing the hope that the threat can be overcome, Howell said "some sacrifices will be involved."
Due to technological advances, "we must learn to live with an increased sense of vulnerability," he said.
Zelikow opened his remarks with a comparison between the modern threat of terrorism and the threat of piracy faced by Thomas Jefferson during his presidency.
Proposing a joint military concert of European and American forces to rid the world of the pirate threat, "Jefferson's solution was genius," Zelikow said.
Although Jefferson was unable to win the international support to implement his plan, the "concert of powers" idea of international cooperation is still valid today, Zelikow said.
"This is a fight for all of civilization .... a war for civilized values or pluralism, tolerance, and opportunity," he said.
Zelikow also said the nation needs to focus on prevention, not revenge.
"We took actions in 1998, and the results of those actions are what we saw two weeks ago," Zelikow said.
In his speech, Ramazani outlined a "holistic approach to the challenge of terrorism" in which the United States must "employ every instrument of foreign policy, including the military."
While describing the unprecedented nature of the terrorist threat, Ramazani also stressed the importance of learning from history.
"The international community must think anew ... needs to address conditions that permit the growth of such depravity," he said.
"There must be an international norm respecting the sanctity of life," Ramazani said. "International terrorism ... is a threat against humanity at large."
The final speaker of the evening, Moore, used the opportunity to dispel common myths held regarding the terrorist attacks.
The first myth, Moore said, is that "the U.S. cannot lawfully use military force."
On the contrary, the United States is "responding to an inherent right to national defense in the U.N. Charter," Moore said. The nation has the right to "individual and collective defense" against terrorists who are "lawful combatant targets."
The second myth outlined by Moore is that the "U.S. did something wrong to incur the attack."
"This is nonsense," he said. "Nonsense on stilts."
Moore outlined multiple programs and military campaigns in recent years that have been on behalf of the Muslim community.
"The U.S. is really being attacked for being a leader of democracy and freedom in the world," he said.
The third myth proposed by Moore is that America will face a "new world" of violence and fear after the attacks on Sep. 11.
On the contrary, "the new world is one not that we will face, but one that the terrorists will face," Moore said. "A world truly committed against terrorism for the first time"
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