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Report Card on the War on Terror

Moderator: Gary Hart
Daniel Benjamin Steven Simon: October 17, 2005; Running Time: 1:32:42

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

Gary Hart wields his national security expertise to query these two authors in detail on their latest collaboration. Benjamin summarizes the book this way: “By pursuing the policies we have, we are hastening the next attack. I’m not talking about a run of the mill attack, the kind society could learn to live with, but a really big attack, which will endanger our institutions, confidence and society.” The authors believe the U.S. intervention in Iraq has spawned a new Iraqi insurgency and energized the greater Islamic jihad. Hart asks if it’s solely U.S. policy that’s creating an increasingly virulent movement, or whether homegrown “Islamic brutality” and belief must share some blame. Simon responds that our actions in the Middle East and elsewhere make it very difficult for Islamic moderates to counter “the observed experience of Muslims in many parts of the world.” A lot of energy that went into Arab nationalism, says Benjamin, now enters a violent movement “to embrace justice, freedom and fairness.” He continues, “The sense of imposition by the West will remain there, and grievances won’t go away even if we pull up stakes tomorrow.”

The authors warn that Islamic fighters in Iraq are getting valuable experience in military operations in urban terrain, which they will likely apply to Western cities. They call for a new policy in the Middle East and South Asia, involving functioning alliances to counter terrorism, as well as creating incentives for hostile leaders to change their behaviors. Benjamin says, “Don’t conduct foreign policy adventures,” because these inevitably give “the bin Laden argument a powerful leg up. We’ve got to stop doing that…. We need people to go back to believing in America as the upholder of ideals it was not too long ago.”

Lecture Details

Location: Wong Auditorium

About the Speakers

Moderator: Gary Hart

Former Colorado Senator and one-time presidential candidate Co-Chair, Hart-Rudman Commission on Homeland Security in the 21st Century (1998-2001)

Gary Hart was a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice, 1964-1965; and a special assistant to the solicitor of the Interior Department, 1965-1967. He practiced law privately in Denver from 1967-1974, and served as national campaign manager for George McGovern for President.

Hart was elected to the Senate in 1974 and reelected in 1980. After his unsuccessful run for the presidency in 1984, he decided not to seek reelection to the Senate, and returned to private law practice in 1988.

Hart lectures at Yale and Oxford universities, and is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and on the Board of Directors of Global Green USA. His publications on homeland security include:Road Map for National Security: Imperative for Change, February 2001; and America—Still Unprepared, Still in Danger, October 2002.

Hart received a J.D. from Yale University Law School in 1964; a B.D. from the Yale University Divinity School in 1961 and a B.A. from Southern Nazarene Univeristy in 1958. He also holds a D.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University.

Daniel Benjamin

Senior Fellow, International Security Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies Co-author, The Next Attack and co-author, The Age of Sacred Terror

Daniel Benjamin previously served as director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council staff and as special assistant and foreign-policy speechwriter for President Clinton. He is a former Berlin bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal and foreign correspondent for Time. He is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford universities.

Steven Simon

Senior Analyst, RAND Corporation Co-author, The Next Attack and co-author, The Age of Sacred Terror

Steven Simon teaches at Georgetown University. He was previously assistant director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He served on the National Security Council staff for five years and was the council's Senior Director for Counterterrorism 1998-1999. Earlier, he spent 20 years at the U.S. Department of State in Middle Eastern security affairs. He holds degrees from Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton and was an international affairs fellow at Oxford.