ABSTRACT
The past 15 years add to the great weight of evidence that the militarized response to terrorism is unethical and ineffective, and that law has often been used as an amoral tool in the name of an illogical security paradigm. The humanitarian crisis confronting Europe and beyond is largely attributable to the failure of US-led anti-terror policy. Post-9/11 events in the United States, Guantanamo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and beyond have raised questions about established law and its applicability. In the Global War on Terror (GWOT), the criminal justice response to acts of terrorism has given way to a military approach. The Bush administration's GWOT approach was premised on the notion that the US is at war with al-Qaeda and international terrorism in general, rather than targeting the people who commit acts of horrifying political violence.
