Criticism of the War on Terror

Abstract

The war against terror in the mainstream of approaches and strategies is very stigmatizing towards certain cultures and results in unclear targets. The controversy over the U.S. attack on Iraq during the presidency of G W Bush Jr. was related to the issue of international legitimacy and the mainstream conceptions of terror and terrorism, with their derivative products in the approach and strategy of the war on terror. This research presents critical views from the international community on the conception of terror and terrorism and highlights the policy of the fight against terror. This research is qualitative research, with literature review and analysis method in the form of meta-analysis. The findings of this research are that many experts in the international community criticize the conceptions of terror and terrorism and propose other approaches that are considered fair and reasonable. That approach is cultural identification regarding acts of terror (the act of terror) whose emergence factors are stratified and the scope of ethnicity, nation-state, and the dominance of the giant business sector. This alternative approach can be a more just way of handling terror acts and solid moral, legal, and political basis.