A Peaceful Plea to End a Faux War

摘要

In the Preface to his short book on the history of post-11 September 2001 (9/11) counterterrorism efforts, Phil Gurski makes it clear that his observations and suggestions about rethinking the "war" on terrorism are not coming from some ivory tower academic—that is, one who has been anointed as a terrorism or intelligence "expert" and who never worked a terrorist investigation, as Gurski actually did during his over 30 years of service in the Canadian Intelligence Service.1 As a self-declared practitioner, Gurski aims at providing a general overview of counterterrorism since 9/11. To this end, his work in An End to the War on Terrorism is akin to a "primer," a short informative piece of writing aimed more at stimulating the interest of the concerned informed lay person and the "expert" who does not mind filling in the information gaps that he admits are there. I consider myself the former.