Miliband on the big mistake

Posted By Joshua Keating Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 12:47 PM Share

British foreign secretary David Miliband made a splash today at a speech in Mumbai by describing the global war on terror as a "mistaken" enterprise. He expands on the theme in a Guardian op-ed today:

The more we lump terrorist groups together and draw the battle lines as a simple binary struggle between moderates and extremists, or good and evil, the more we play into the hands of those seeking to unify groups with little in common. Terrorist groups need to be tackled at root, interdicting flows of weapons and finance, exposing the shallowness of their claims, channelling their followers into democratic politics.

The "war on terror" also implied that the correct response was primarily military. But as General 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.

There's not much on the issue over at Miliband's personal blog, though he did seem to suggest in a post on Monday that the Mumbai attacks helped crystalize his thinking on this issue:

I put this right tonight when I fly to Delhi for three days in India. I will be in Delhi for meetings, and in Mumbai for a day to show solidarity with the people of that city and to reflect on what the Mumbai attacks tell us about terrorism and the so called 'war on terror' (it is not Al Qaeda that has made India a substantial terrorist target practically every month for the last 12).

EXPLORE:BRITAIN, INDIA, TERRORISM
 

SAM

1:11 PM ET

January 15, 2009

Missed part

This comment is for the morning brief. Ahmadi Nejhad, also talked directly to Israeli soldiers, calling them as fellow human beings and asked them not to kill women and kids in Gaza! I won't be too much surprised if Iran and Israel open Embassies in case he wins the next election!

 

JOSHUA KEATING

2:32 PM ET

January 15, 2009

Sorry about comments on the brief

They're now enabled
 

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