The world needs brighter leaders
Another horrendous bombing, this time in London, demonstrating that terrorism is still alive and well and, indeed, thriving in the hothouse of problematic western foreign and security policies. History is funny (not so). One day on the top of the world with the Olympics for 2012; the next day, the pits. A few pounds of explosive material to wreak so much havoc.
Yes, one still feels that the U.S. and Britain made a big mistake defining terrorism in military rather than criminal terms. Sadly, so many “wars” that the U.S. has fought in recent years–against poverty, cancer, and drugs, for three examples–have been ballyhooed and then forgotten. The “war” on terror–open-ended and ill-defined–is something that can only grow in its blowback manifestations. The unilateral U.S. policy, supported by Tony Blair, has done nothing to get at root causes of Islamic radicalism, nor can it. Expect more explosions–here, there, and everywhere. Let’s hope they are not really big….chemical, biological, or nuclear.
“Easy for you to say!” I heard someone shout. Yes, it is. The issue of terror in the world is a criminal issue, a global issue, and one that needs to be met by all the nations of the world, working in concert. The idea of an unprepared U.S. military being able to hold its own in Iraq is laughable….if the empire meant business, it would instigate a draft. But my point, aside from the anger that bubbles up here, is that there are a number of institutions and approaches that might be better than what we see now.
For example, the PCIJ at the Hague. For example, a new UN anti-terror initiative. For example, intelligence that gets down on the ground and dirty, that knows what’s going on with various groups. This is not the intelligence people as constituted that we are talking about. The CIA and FBI are less than helpful in dealing with the kinds of threat we ourselves are doing so much to create. We don’t need FOX, CNN, and MSNBC to fight the war; we need sharp people who are on the ground who can understand the enemy and carry the fight, swiftly and silently, to that enemy. Many, many raids on Entebbe.
For a point that Washington has not yet grasped is the nature of terrorism–it is something that comes from people’s hearts and minds when they see no better way to combat a powerful adversary than to commit their bodies to a holy war, in this case the jihad against the west. The Japanese consecrated themselves to certain death in World War II with well-known Kamizaze attacks, and–we were told in the early 1950s–so did the Chinese Communists in Korea, willing to pour human wave after wave at their adversaries without care for life.
Americans and Westerners generally care more about life, we are told today, than those losers who blow themselves up in the name in Allah. One wonders. If we did care more about life, our polities would be much healthier, from the food we eat to the way we treat education, minorities, and prisoners.
This is a point I’ve thought about for some time: suicide bombers are a lot like graffiti artists in that both groups are very difficult to stop. You’ve got to penetrate the specific group, cell, whatever. You’ve got to understand the lingo, the local and regional variations, the motives. You’ve got to be smart.
And that would be a start. But, make no mistake, there will be no finish. The basic point is to minmize damage and find ways to do far better on ground-level intelligence. Like having people start studying Middle Eastern languages, culture, history, and related areas.
Another start would be to think about reasons for Islamic anger against the West–which at root is an extension of anger at its own states that have westernized (US globalizing culture as devil), and even moreso the hostility at apostate states and leaders who have transformed their countries into oil depots for the West. The petrodollars that feed corrupt royalty (and fed Saddam Hussein for such a long while) are symbolic of an unholy alliance between western imperialists and regional leaders who have sold out their religion. Yes, oil plays a huge role — and McQuaig is right when she notes that “It’s the Crude, Dude!”
There will be more to say on this topic, much more. For now, let’s keep fingers crossed that people in power can find a little innovation in thinking about what happened yesterday and why it happened.