End of the War on Terror? Nope. (CANADA)

The Obama administration inherited many toxic legacies from its Bush/Cheney predecessor. At the top of the list has to be the “war on terror,” first proclaimed shortly after 9/11 and set in doctrinal stone in the 2002 U.S. National Security Strategy. Many Obama supporters, in the United States and abroad, would like nothing better than to forget the whole thing and concentrate on the rest of a full hand of troubles – the economy, energy transformation, the climate, the health of the planet. But the war on terror isn't going away.

Dick Cheney famously proclaimed that the U.S. would have to go over “to the dark side” to combat terrorist threats. That dark side gave us Guantanamo, a whole string of executive orders that flouted the law and stretched presidential prerogatives, CIA secret prisons abroad, and “extraordinary rendition” of suspected terrorists into the willing hands of jailors in a variety of Middle Eastern countries.

Barack Obama's challenge is to extract counterterrorism strategy from the dark side and infuse it with a renewed respect for legal and democratic norms, and a concern for America's reputation abroad. There will have to be a serious effort not just to launch missiles against terrorists but also to wage a sustained hearts and minds campaign.

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