President Bush declared the War on Terror in 2001. Dr Alison Broinowski AM, Australians for War Power Reforms (AWPR), former diplomat and Author, argues that America and its Western Allies including Australia have been involved in multiple ’never ending’ foreign wars with no declaration in sight of victory.

US President George W. Bush declared the war on terror in 2001. Dr Alison Broinowski AM, Australians for War Power Reforms (AWPR), former diplomat and Author, argues that America and its Western allies - including Australia - have been involved in multiple ’never ending’ foreign wars with no declaration in sight of victory.

Despite many years of discussion, any concept of ‘victory’ has foundered on the idea that one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter.

There are no treaties, conventions, or rules in the War on Terror, and in their absence individual countries have passed their own laws with little discussion and in processes that lack transparency or accountability.

Broinowski argues that anyone may be defined as a terrorist or supporter of a terrorist organisation. To date Australia has declared 34 organisations as terrorists with sanctions and penalties set out in over 90 pieces of legislation.

Most worryingly, in Broinowski’s view, terrorism committed by states in the name of militarism are not subject to these laws .

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Equality under the law: the differing treatment of Hezbollah and Israel in Australia

Last week the federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was asked by a journalist about the process for making Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based political and militant group, a proscribed terrorist organisation. As is usually the case for a politician caught out because they dont know the answer, he became aggressive and sought to belittle the journalist.

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