Miliband Criticized Outgoing US President Bush's Foreign Policy - Unwarranted Remarks / Miliband: War On Terror 'Misconceived'

Miliband Criticized Outgoing US President Bush's Foreign Policy - Unwarranted Remarks / Miliband: War On Terror 'Misconceived'

(NSI News Source Info) January 20, 2009: The British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, says that the 'war on terror' has brought "more harm than good" for the West. In an article published in the Guardian, Miliband called on the global community to respond to future attacks by "championing the rule of law, not subordinating it."

Criticizing outgoing US President George W. Bush's foreign policy, Miliband went on to say the misuse of the phrase 'war on terror' had brought "more harm than good" for the West. Following the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, President Bush used the 'war on terror' as a pretext to attack Afghanistan and "defeat" terrorism by capturing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, destroying his terrorist cell and removing the Taliban regime.

"Seven years on from 9/11 it is clear that we need to take a fundamental look at our efforts to prevent extremism and its terrible offspring, terrorist violence," Miliband wrote. London was one of Washington's main allies in attacking Afghanistan and Iraq.

The British diplomat added that the 'war on terror' was misconceived and that the West cannot "kill its way" out of the threats it faces. "As [US] General [David] Petraeus said to me and others in Iraq, the coalition there could not kill its way out of the problems of insurgency and civil strife," he wrote.

While thousands of British troops are set to withdraw from Iraq, hundreds of others are still locked in an eight-year fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Miliband attempted to distance the British government from the Bush administration by saying that Britain has not used the phrase 'war on terror' since 2006.

"The idea of a 'war on terror' gave the impression of a unified, transnational enemy, embodied in the figure of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda," he continued. Miliband urged the incoming US administration to shut down the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison and start a new era of "democratic opportunity" instead of "fear and oppression".