World Leaders’ Empty Talks Summit

4-1132x670At the G-20 Summit in Hangzhou, the leaders of the world’s 20 major economies discussed a numbers of issues from trade protectionism, competitive currency devaluation, energy security, sustainable development, and monetary and structural reform policies to boost global GDP growth. It is impossible that those meeting at the summit are not aware of how much economic and financial stability depends on the safety and stability of the world. The international group of today is the expanded G- 20, which is very large including emerging powers like China and India, making them agree with much less. They do not have any common vision for the future. American domination is fading fast. In the Middle East terror groups occupy two countries, Syria and Iraq. Russia has already paralyzed Ukraine and is bombing the Syrian people. China is challenging America and its power in East Asia. Yet, Obama has not done anything to solve the world’s most complex issues. Few have any respect for the American President, because it is clear that President Obama put America on sale.

The U.S and Russia failed to agree on bringing peace to the war torn Syria. Russia is firmly backing Dictator Bashar Al Assad, providing military assistance, weapons, and air and naval bases. The United States supports the anti-Assad rebels and Kurdish groups leading the ground fighting against ISIS. The leaders at the G20 discussed the fight against international terrorism, all saying they are worried about global terrorists and that the international community should fight against terrorism. The problem is that all countries have different definitions of terrorism, and that is the biggest problem in the fight against it. Leaders failed to adopt a shared attitude against all terrorists, still thinking that there are good terrorists and bad terrorists, but every kind of terrorism is bad and must be dealt with unanimously. But when it comes to action and the question of who is willing to do whatever it takes to eradicate terrorism, they simply either will do nothing about it, or they will accuse those who do something of human rights violations.
If we do nothing about terrorism, it will not go away. The international community must take the fight against terrorism seriously and consider all illegal armed groups as terrorists. It must take a stance against political regimes that produce terrorism. In the G -20 Summit, leaders agreed once again that ISIS is a main threat in the Middle East and other regions, but who supports ISIS? If governments did not financially and logistically support these groups, they would not survive. The nations that support terrorism must be sanctioned. Growing international terrorism poses fundamental challenges, especially the challenge of some countries that use terrorism as an instrument of state policy. The international community should have zero tolerance for terrorism. Clearly, with terror groups in the Philippines, someone funds them and someone arms them. It could be domestic support, or it could be international support. But if they did not get support from the outside, they would not survive.
President Duterte must intensify his efforts not just to fight terror but also to coordinate actions to isolate those who are supporters or sponsors of terror. I have written numerous times before to argue that no terrorist organization can represent any religious or ethnic group. No one should treat terrorists as freedom fighters nor refer to them as revolutionaries, guerillas, or militias, a terminology and thus evaluation that is unacceptable. Recently, terrorist groups have evolved moving from a dependency on state sponsorship; many of the most dangerous groups and individuals now operate as non-state actors. Taking advantage of a borderless world, technology, communication, and transitory groups, terrorists can reach any corner of the world. While some remain focused on local or national political dynamics like Abbu Sayyaf, other groups intend to establish global dominance.
In general, the international counterterrorism regime continues to suffer from a lack of a universal agreement over the definition of terrorism or over when terrorism happens. Leaders debate how to stop further terrorism with some saying we must crack down on liberty, some positing that we need more war against these groups, and others seeing a wait and see attitude. When President Duterte declared Davao and the country in a State of Lawlessness, wanting military to assist police to protect citizen. People began to criticize the President fearing that he will bring martial law back to the country; however, no matter what critics say, the methods for stopping future attacks are very clear-- to drain the swamp. The international community should understand that terrorism is a fire, and whoever every plays with it and will get burned. Unlike the international precedence set in the numerous accounts of countries standing by and doing nothing, as Saddam Hussein famously predicted it would when he began the Anfal, the international community should build a consensus against terrorism to ferret out those who perpetrate violence and fear against the innocent public and to bring them to swift but legal justice.
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com

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