Jurgen Todenhöfer (born 1940) is a German author famous for his writings against the USA invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. I just learned about the guy and I actually didn't read any of his books yet. But here is one of the ten theses of his, that i liked very much.
Terrorists in Islamic disguise are murderers. The same holds true for the ringleaders disguised as Christians who wage wars of aggression in contravention of international law.
The attacks carried out since the mid-'90s by Arab terrorists on Western facilities are in their view a response to the never-ending "organized robbery and murder" on the part of the West. The attacks, including those on the World Trade Center have killed more than 5,000 Western civilians. They are morally completely unacceptable. The end never justifies the means. That is why the attacks on the World Trade Center were condemned by all Muslim governments, by Syria and Iran even by Hizbollah and Hamas. In many Muslim countries distraught people laid flowers in front of the U.S. embassy. Terrorists who kill innocent people are not freedom fighters or resistance fighters, holy warriors or martyrs. They are murderers.
But are not those who mastermind illegal wars of aggression also terrorists and murderers - even murderers of their own soldiers? If one talks about the 5,000 Westerners murdered by Al-Qaeda, must one not also talk about the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have been killed in George W. Bush's illegal war? Do not the legal yardsticks we apply to Saddam Hussein or Slobodan Milosevic also apply to Western heads of governments? Why do Western elites not even dare to ask whether George W. Bush and Tony Blair should be brought before an international criminal court because of a war in Iraq that is based on lies?
In the opinion of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime: it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within it the accumulated evil of all crimes of war." The chief U.S. prosecutor Robert H. Jackson stated: "We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants today constitutes the record on which history will judge us tomorrow."
"Wars of aggression are the terrorism of the rich," as Peter Ustinov put it. For an Iraqi child it makes no difference whether he is blown apart by an "Islamic" suicide bomber or a "Christian" bomb. For this child, George W. Bush and Tony Blair are just as much terrorists as Bin Laden is for us.
The high number of civilian victims of military operations is often excused with the argument that such "collateral damage" is not intentional. That is disingenuous - at least with respect to aerial attacks - because the death of civilians is almost always tacitly accepted in such cases. However, in advanced legal systems "tacit acceptance" means 'intent.' Aerial bombardment is, moreover, rarely effective. Special-forces operations on the ground can usually achieve much more. But then one would have to accept a greater number of fatalities within one's own ranks. And that could cost votes. So instead one drops cluster bombs and tacitly accepts the death of civilians. Dropping cluster bombs from the safety of a pilot's cockpit is the most cowardly form of terrorism on the part of the powerful. The myth of the honorable war is mankind's greatest lie. "Dulce bellum inexpertis" – War is sweet to those who have not experienced it (Erasmus of Rotterdam).
Armed resistance to wars and occupation that are illegal under international law is nonetheless only legitimate if it is conducted in accordance with the humanitarian law that applies in armed conflicts. Suicide attacks against civilians who have different beliefs, such as we see every day in Iraq and elsewhere, are acts of terrorism. They have nothing to do with legitimate resistance. The most spectacular attacks on civilians in Iraq are, however, for the most part directed from outside the country. According to a statement issued on July 11, 2007, by the spokesman for the multi-national forces in Iraq, General Kevin Bergner, between 80 and 90 percent of the suicide bombers come from abroad.
One must clearly distinguish between this almost entirely foreign terrorism directed against civilians and the legitimate multi-confessional Iraqi resistance to foreign occupation. Nobody can take away from the Iraqis' their right to resist. It is a timeless inviolable right of all peoples. The great majority of the Iraqi people support the resistance movement, which explicitly rejects attacks on civilians. The resistance not only involves Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, but Christians as well. The number of Christian resistance fighters in Iraq is greater than the number of Al-Qaeda fighters. Women also fight in the multi-confessional Iraqi resistance. Is that really surprising? What would we do if there were enemy tanks on our streets? Are only those resistance fighters who are on our side "freedom fighters" and the rest "terrorists"?
The Iraqis have long since lost the media war. There are still at least 100 military operations conducted by occupation forces against the Iraqi civilian population every day, and a comparable number of attacks every day by the resistance on occupation forces and their allies. The daily tally of suicide attacks against civilians is two or three at most. Nevertheless, TV broadcasters show almost exclusively pictures of such suicide terror attacks, which are carried out mainly by foreigners, as if that were typical of the Iraqis' struggle against the United States. They therefore convey a completely distorted picture of the situation in Iraq. We do not get to see the true face of this war. The Pentagon has a monopoly on information in occupied Iraq and exploits this to the full.
Of course non-violent resistance in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King would be preferable to violent resistance, even when it is legitimate. In the religious war between the city states of Mecca and Medina Muhammad's most fascinating victory came when, to the amazement of his enemies in Mecca he and his followers gathered, unarmed, outside the gates of Mecca and demanded access to the holy sites. Passive resistance born of the power of faith would also make the Iraqi resistance more credible. But for centuries have we not shown the world that only brute force guarantees success?
JURGEN TODENHÖFER
