ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I would like to sketch a framework for thinking about the United States Government’s response to the terrorist attacks of September 11. Particularly, I would like to examine the moral and legal rules that apply to the US-led fight against terrorism, and articulate what I take to be the appropriate limits to waging the so-called “War on Terror.” Following the violent attacks of September 11 by al-Qaeda operatives one of the fundamental questions faced by the Bush Administration, as well as by the broader international community, is how are we best to respond to the threat and reality of terrorism? The Bush Administration has assumed that the answer is obvious and uncontroversial: we may resort to war in order to strike back at terrorists, as well as those nations suspected of harboring them. Yet the Bush Administration has thus far failed to elaborate the normative judgments that led them to this answer, so that their justification for resorting to the use of armed force remains incomplete.
