The threat of terrorism will increase says anti-war activist.
By: Brooke Stoddard
Anti-war activist Daniel Ellsberg argued Thursday that President Bush’s proposed war on Iraq will significantly increase, rather than eliminate, the threat of terrorism to Americans.
"The war will enrage a large portion of the billion Muslims in the Middle East, increasing recruits for Osama bin Laden," Mr. Ellsberg told 200 students and faculty in Dodds Auditorium of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
A former Pentagon analyst, Mr. Ellsberg is known for releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and the Washington Post in 1971. The covert, 7,000-page document explained the reasons behind U.S. intervention in Vietnam.
Mr. Ellsberg, who claimed the war in Iraq would cause more casualties in a few days than the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, said an attack by the U.S. military would also stimulate a new wave of suicide bombings against Americans.
"War will make many people think that suicide bombers are doing it the wrong way but have the right target," he said. "People in other countries will not go against the suicide bombers because they are acting against an imperial power."
Mr. Ellsberg said the war could possibly increase the threat of a global proliferation of nuclear weapons and fail to exterminate al Qaeda.
"This will make it all the more impossible to find a coalition of Muslims to join us against al Qaeda," he said. "Al Qaeda will be home free for the next decade."
However, Mr. Ellsberg agrees that Saddam Hussein must somehow be reprimanded for his actions.
"Saddam Hussein is a tyrant, a dictator. He is a brutal, torturing person and ruler," he said. "He has committed aggression and, as it has been pointed out, ruthlessly so."
Politicians are also incorrect in their estimates of the possible length of the war in Iraq, Mr. Ellsberg said.
"They are confident that this will be a six-day to six-week war, and it’s possible. But to be confident of that is reckless, naive, stupid and irresponsible," he said. "I don’t know of a single military man who shares that confidence."
Mr. Ellsberg accused Bush administration officials of prematurely supporting a war they are unsure they can win.
"I think this is a time when our leaders are about to roll their iron dice, as Bismarck would say, about the outcome of this war," he said. "They are gambling over whether or not the war will be successful."
He further claimed that hundreds of politicians could have worked to prevent the possibility of war but failed to publicly denounce the Bush administration.
"There are many people who know that the reasons for war given by our leaders are false and this demonstrates that the government is doing something terribly reckless," he said.
After the lecture, Mr. Ellsberg answered questions from the audience about the similarities and differences between the Vietnam War and a war on Iraq.
"Our role in Vietnam was not as blatantly illegal as this one is in most of the world," he said. "In Vietnam and now, for most people but not for all, it’s hard for Americans to see the United States as the aggressor. But this is not difficult for a lot of people in other countries."
Mr. Ellsberg plans to participate in the anti-war rally in New York City on Saturday. He hopes to join the War Resisters League and the Veterans Against the War for the rally.
The lecture was sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

