For Immediate ReleaseSeptember 27, 2001
Contact: Alisa Giardinelli610.690.5717 [email protected]www.swarthmore.edu/Home/News
Lack of Evidence in Terrorist Attacks Undermines Democracy, Says Swarthmore College Political Scientist Adds Calls for 'Normalcy' Encourage False Sense of Invulnerability
By withholding evidence that links Osama bin Laden to the recent terrorist attacks, the Bush administration risks the ideals the President says he wants to defend, according to Jeffrey Murer, a Swarthmore College political science professor.
"Despite making promises to do so, the administration has made no effort to provide even a semblance of evidence," says Murer, whose research focuses on the resurgence of fascist political movements in Eastern Europe. "This makes it difficult for the country to weigh the costs and benefits of military action."
According to Murer, everything the government does is supposed to be in the name of a pluralist democracy. "'For and by the people' suggests the people have a hand in the decisions," he says. "But this level of secrecy troubles me. It makes it difficult to feel as though people are participating in the government response."
In addition, Murer says such information could provide a better sense of what is happening and take away uncertainty. "Instead, the current administration breeds uncertainty, not calm," he says.
Murer also thinks the country still wrongly believes it is invulnerable. "For all the talk about how we've 'woken up' from our naive belief that we are invulnerable, and for all of the massive airport security, there are calls for 'normalcy,'" he says. "To suggest that somehow we can go back -- that a proper memorial to the innocents killed in New York should be another office tower and that it wouldn't be a target -- shows how invulnerable we still think we are. It's worthwhile for leaders to foster this naivete rather than engage it directly. I think that's what allows them to go about with this military action."
If terrorism is an expression of political rage, frustration, and despair, then Murer says weapons won't stop it. "Only if this 'war' is fought with diplomats, with food and water and energy for those deprived of it, will terrorism stop," he says.
Located near Philadelphia, Swarthmore is a highly selective liberal arts college with an enrollment of 1,450. Swarthmore is consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country.
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