Less Safe, Less Free

Why America Is Losing the War on Terror

By Cole, David Chamberlin & Lobel, Jules

Publishers Summary:
A cogent critique of the new "preventive paradigm" in counterterrorism policy by two of the nation's leading legal scholars."If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long."—President George W. Bush, defending the National Security Strategy doctrine "preemptive war," Commencement Speech at West Point, June 1, 2002In Steven Spielberg's science fiction thriller Minority Report, the Justice Department uses psychic visionaries to predict and prevent future crimes. President Bush has no psychic visionaries, but in fighting the war on terrorism his administration has nonetheless adopted a sweeping new "preemptive" strategy, which turns on the ability to predict the future.At home and abroad, the administration has cut corners on fundamental commitments of the rule of law in the name of preventing future attacks—from "waterboarding" detainees, to disappearing suspects into secret CIA prisons, to attacking Iraq against the wishes of the UN Security Council and most of the world when it posed no imminent threat of attacking us.In this brilliantly conceived critique, two of the country's preeminent constitutional scholars argue that the great irony is that these sacrifices in the rule of law, adopted in the name of prevention, have in fact made us more susceptible to future terrorist attacks. They conclusively debunk the administration's claim that it is winning the war on terror and offer an alternative strategy in which the rule of law is an asset, not an obstacle, in the struggle to keep us both safe and free.

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ISBN
978-1-59558-133-4
Publisher
New Press


REVIEWS

Library Journal

Reviewed on September 1, 2007

How our government should provide citizen safety during the war on terror is a source of continued debate between Congress and President Bush. Both of these books provide new and broader perspectives on U.S. attempts to counter terrorism, and both develop systematic analysis to underscore flaws to real and emergent terrorist threats. Cole (law, Georgetown Univ.;Enemy Aliens ) and Lobel (law, Univ. of Pittsburgh;Success Without Victory ) criticize President Bush's use of a "preventive paradigm" that avoids the rule of law and that they deem counterproductive. The authors address our ability to maintain national security within our fundamental principles of government, individual liberties, and the rule of law. In a series of well-developed arguments, they state that the Bush administration has enga...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

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