West Point professor calls on US military to target legal critics of war on terror
US military academy official William Bradford argues that attacks on
scholars’ home offices and media outlets – along with Islamic holy sites
– are legitimate
An assistant professor in the law department of the US Military
Academy at West Point has argued that legal scholars critical of the war
on terrorism represent a “treasonous” fifth column that should be
attacked as enemy combatants.
In a lengthy academic paper, the professor, William C Bradford,
proposes to threaten “Islamic holy sites” as part of a war against
undifferentiated Islamic radicalism. That war ought to be prosecuted
vigorously, he wrote, “even if it means great destruction, innumerable
enemy casualties, and civilian collateral damage”.
Other “lawful targets” for the US military
in its war on terrorism, Bradford argues, include “law school
facilities, scholars’ home offices and media outlets where they give
interviews” – all civilian areas, but places where a “causal connection
between the content disseminated and Islamist crimes incited” exist.
“Shocking and extreme as this option might seem, [dissenting]
scholars, and the law schools that employ them, are – at least in theory
– targetable so long as attacks are proportional, distinguish
noncombatants from combatants, employ nonprohibited weapons, and
contribute to the defeat of Islamism,” Bradford wrote.
West Point is the revered undergraduate institution north of New York
City where the US army educates its future officer corps. It prides
itself on the rigor of its curriculum. Representatives from the school
said Bradford had only begun his employment there on 1 August.
Underclassmen attend a commencement ceremony at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
