Events
February 22, 2010
Terrorism ideas turned inside out
Philip Bobbitt told his audience in his Feb. 11 Luminaries lecture was “. . . to try and insinuate just a few doubts in your mind about the idea of a war on terror.”
The author, academic and expert on military strategy and constitutional law “came to believe that . . . we didn’t really have an idea about the war on terror.
"Looking at the problem from the vantage point of what we understand about war, about terrorism, about victory, we will cripple ourselves. Unless we have new ideas that are more sensitive to changes under way in the international system, in warfare and in terrorism, we’ll not be able to cope with the threats that we can already see on the horizon.”
Bobbitt said, “Preparedness is the best single step we can take to minimize the results of terrorist activities. Victory in warfare is the achievement of a war aim. The war aim in the war against terror is the protection of civilians. And that is achievable but my own concern is that we’re not very well-prepared to do it properly.”
