The End of Terror?
Dick Cheney is gone, but the world he built remains. Whether it ends now depends on who defines America’s next chapter.
Happy birthday MT!
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On Thursday, the US Senate briefly woke up and held a vote to block Donald Trump from conducting strikes against Venezuela. It failed.
Since the end of August, the Trump administration has ramped up US military presence in Venezuelan waters in the Caribbean, ostensibly to confront drug traffickers. It says the buildup is part of a broader crackdown on fentanyl, which Trump has made a centerpiece of his “law and order” agenda. Except, Venezuela is not a major producer or transit point for the deadly narcotic. What it does have is a leftist ruler that Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who fled Castro and communism, is eager to oust. Venezuela is one of Cuba’s biggest patrons.
Ah, regime change. It’s like we never left the early aughts.
Harkening back to that time, the White House calls its targets “narco-terrorists” who are a national security threat to Americans—and that is a matter the commander-in-chief must act on. They have precedent to back this up.
Following the 9/11 attacks, the George W. Bush administration pushed through the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF). That enabled the president to skirt the 1973 War Powers Resolution that requires the executive branch to seek Congressional approval for military action.
Terrorism, the Bush team argued, changed the equation. Karen Greenberg has written that Team Bush saw the war against terrorism as a “new kind of war”—one in which the old rules no longer applied. The architect of the “new war” was Bush’s vice president who died on Monday, Dick Cheney. To quote Spencer Ackerman, “no hell is hot or eternal enough” for him.
Cheney’s “war on terror” expanded surveillance, normalized indefinite detention, and stretched executive power beyond recognition. Again, lifting from Ackerman, Brown University’s Cost of War Project found that the War on Terror killed between 897,000 and 929,000 people and cost $8 trillion.
Every president since, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden, has lived inside the house Cheney built. It is wildly popular to blame Trump, even among Republicans. The truth is he is a consequence of what came before him.
Obama campaigned on restoring America’s moral standing, banning torture, and closing Guantanamo. Yet Guantanamo still stands. His signature national security innovation—drone warfare—only deepened the problem. The Biden administration’s 2021 National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism promised to confront white supremacy and protect civil liberties. Yet it preserved many of the surveillance and intelligence-sharing tools first created after 9/11. Civil rights groups warned that the strategy risked repeating the same biases that once targeted Muslim, Black, and immigrant communities. The party’s 2020 platform pledged to end such practices, but no meaningful legislative or policy reform has followed.
On Tuesday, New Yorkers took the first step toward change. (Oh, come on, you knew I had to bring it back to my hometown….) As I mentioned on Wednesday, Cheney died on the eve that New York elected its first Muslim mayor. Zohran Mamdani’s win isn’t just a local political upset. It’s a counterpoint to the world Cheney made.
Mamdani’s politics, unapologetically progressive and pro-justice, embody the generation that grew up in the long shadow of 9/11. He’s called out US complicity in Israel’s assault on Gaza and challenged the idea that security must come at the expense of rights and accountability —something that used to be at the heart of Democratic politics. That has spurred critics to call him a radical. Either way, his rise exposes what the establishment, Democrat and Republican, prefers to ignore: its failure to evolve beyond fear.
As Trump threatens Venezuela and Congress looks away, the United States appears to be once again sleepwalking into war. Zohran Mamdani’s win won’t change that, much less erase Dick Cheney’s legacy, but it begins to chip away at it.
The war on terror may not have ended, but the generation that grew up under it is beginning to end its hold on us. —Elmira
Elsewhere in the World.....
On our radar...
Zohran Mamdani’s improbable journey from Muslim immigrant to mayor-elect in New York City resonated across the globe in unpredictable ways, writes Dionee Searcey. (NYT) (gift article)
On Dick Cheney’s passing, Kelley Beaucar Vlahos and Jim Lobe point out, he not only midwifed lies about weapons of mass destruction that led the US to invade Iraq, but he also pushed to amass more powers for the US president. “He helped kill our faith in leaders.” (Responsible Statecraft)
In 11 years, feminist foreign policy has “grown from a thought experiment…to a small but vigorous sample of countries that have made considerable strides toward making,” it a reality, writes Maria Luisa Gambale, in covering the Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative’s recent report. (PassBlue)
Venezuela War Watch
Why Venezuela? That’s the title of this piece that tracks how Trump went from wanting to extract business and oil concessions from Venezuela to getting behind Marco Rubio’s argument that Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro must go, by Missy Ryan, Vivian Salama, Nancy Youssef, and Michael Scherer. (The Atlantic) (gift article )
What will Venezuela’s military do, in both the case of a US attack or regime change? To start, Fabiana Sofia Perera and Brian Fonseca do not believe that the US will invade Venezuela. They have sat down to consider the various scenarios of what happens to the military if Maduro goes. (Americas Quarterly)
COP 30
The UN’s Climate Summit is underway in Brazil. With the Trump administration’s slashes to climate science and expanded fossil fuel extraction, Jacqueline Peel says that it faces the “greatest headwinds of any (summit) in recent history.” (The Conversation)
US
This week, Trump has said he has told the Defense Department to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria. Yeah. So much for being the peace president. Trump says this is necessary because Islamic “terrorists” are persecuting Christians. Now, Nigeria does have a big problem with an Al Qaeda inspired group, Boko Haram. But if he really cares about the Christians of Nigeria, I wonder why he isn’t extending them refugee status to the US. He’s opened the door to white South Africans….
Ellie Cook has more and talks to Asha Castleberry-Hernandez about what a possible US military operation would look like. (Newsweek)
Before Syria’s president arrives at the White House on Monday, the US has been busy pushing for a resolution to lift sanctions on him and others who had previously been listed on a counterterrorism list at the UN. Damilola Banjo has the details. (PassBlue)
Oh, yes. Ahmed Al-Shara will visit the White House on Monday—the first Syrian president to do so. While that’s a huge win, Shara has big challenges to overcome at home, writes Deb Amos. (Deb’s Substack)
Listen: Mara Karlin recently visited Syria. She talked to Aslı Aydıntaşbaş about that and what’s next for the country. (The Current)
This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments on Trump’s authority to impose tariffs, a power that rests with Congress. Amy Howe says that the justices seem skeptical. (SCOTUS Blog)
It’s unclear when the court will rule on this case—or what will happen to the tariffs if they strike them down. 😬
Africa
Sudan continues to struggle with civil war. As noted last week, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured El Fasher last week. The RSF grew out of the genocidal Janjaweed militias that persecuted non-Arabs in Darfur in 2003. Ingie Gohar lays out a detailed explainer on why the RSF is at war with Sudan’s army, which controls much of the East; why the UAE supports the RSF; the real issue at the center of the conflict: gold. (Arab Center)
An insider look at what’s happening in El Fasher and what the RSF is doing to the civilian population. (African Feminism)
Asia
The world may have forgotten about Afghanistan, but the Afghan diaspora hasn’t, writes Lourdes Martin. On Sayeda Qader’s Kalaam Project. (The Diplomat)
Americas
On Tuesday, a man groped Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. She has since filed a complaint against him, noting that such behavior is an “assault on all women.” Sol Amaya,Verónica Calderón and Uriel Blanco on the discussions it has sparked in Mexico, about violence against women and Scheinbaum’s security. (CNN)
Middle East
Israel arrested its top military prosecutor, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi last weekend, charging her with leaking footage of Israeli soldiers beating and assaulting a Palestinian detainee. Melanie Lidman and Julia Frankel report. (AP)
In Turkey, President Erdoğan has grown increasingly autocratic—but is using foreign policy as cover. That’s how he’s keeping the critics, Europe and the US, away. Gönül Tol’s analysis goes beyond Turkish borders. (NYT)
Europe
In Germany, the country’s chancellor has said that Syrians no longer have a reason to seek asylum or stay in Germany. Kate Connolly has the story. (The Guardian)
Well, Russia is planning to test nuclear weapons too… Heather Williams puts that into perspective. (CSIS)
In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’s party underperformed. But it’s too early to celebrate, writes Frida Ghitis. (WPR)
Under the Radar
Congrats to the Indian women’s cricket team for winning the World Cup! (ESPN)
In Egypt, the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza opened. Lizzie Crook gives us a peek at what’s inside. (Dezeen)
And in the Maldives, if you were born after 2007, it is now illegal for you to smoke. (BBC)
Opportunities
It was a busy week! So I didn’t have time to slot in opportunities.
Editorial Team
Elmira Bayrasli - Editor-in-Chief
A particularly good piece this Friday. Spot on. Thanks for calling out Cheneys legacy of fear, hate and violence, and highlighting how Mamdani's victory signals the possibility that some may be willing to chip away at it.