“How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism?”

—  Howard Zinn

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Howard Zinn photo
Howard Zinn 69
author and historian 1922–2010

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“Ludicrous concepts…like the whole idea of a "war on terrorism". You can wage war against another country, or on a national group within your own country, but you can't wage war on an abstract noun. How do you know when you've won? When you've got it removed from the Oxford English Dictionary?”

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“How can we escape from the trap that the terrorists have set us? Only by recognizing that the war on terrorism cannot be won by waging war. We must, of course, protect our security; but we must also correct the grievances on which terrorism feeds. Crime requires police work, not military action.”

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“It is time we admitted that we are not at war with "terrorism". We are at war with Islam.”

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Sam Harris, "Mired in a religious war", Washington Times (1 December 2004) http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/dec/1/20041201-090801-2582r/
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Context: It is time we admitted that we are not at war with "terrorism". We are at war with Islam. This is not to say that we are at war with all Muslims, but we are absolutely at war with the vision of life that is prescribed to all Muslims in the Koran. The only reason Muslim fundamentalism is a threat to us is because the fundamentals of Islam are a threat to us.

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“War is terrorism, magnified a hundred times.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

"The Old Way of Thinking" http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/Old_Way_Thinking.html, in The Progressive (November 2001)
Context: We need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children. War is terrorism, magnified a hundred times.

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“President Bush said in his speech Monday night that the war in Iraq is "the central front in the war on terror." It's not the central front in the war on terror, but it has unfortunately become the central recruiting office for terrorists.”

Al Gore (1948) 45th Vice President of the United States

Quotes, NYU Speech (2004)

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