The war on terrorism has been tossed around all through the campaign and indeed since 9/11, but do we really know what we’re talking about? Experts say this war will last decades or indefinitely, but give no hard reasons for their analysis. Global terrorism is a misnomer as though it were a calculated plan to conquer the world. Al Qaeda and its ilk are no Soviet Union. In a sense they are a damn nuisance, however deadly, just as the IRA was to Britain and the Chechens are to Russia.
That a murderous cell was able to wreak havoc on us on that infamous day is an attack that cannot possibly be a continual approach anymore than Japan was able to perpetrate another Pearl Harbor. Once the element of surprise is dissolved, horrendous disasters as such are nil. Obviously we cannot go back to sleep and must stay alert, but that doesn’t mean we are engaged in a worldwide war. Nor does it mean that we must unilaterally engage this enemy overseas or else we will be fighting them here.
Terrorism is home-grown and subversive. Osama bin Laden in his youth was not a terrorist. He went to fight communism in Afghanistan because he saw a threat there against Islam and modernity. When he returned to his homeland, he saw the same threat with respect to the Saudi government because the ancient desert had been turned into the oil fields wherein prosperity was planting the seeds of Western culture and eventual domination by modernists. Had the Saudis not exiled him but actually imprisoned him for subversion, Al Qaeda as we know it today would never have festered its cells in Afghanistan. In a sense, this is what is happening in Iraq and why Zarqawi is now the ascribed king pin of al Qaeda because he perceives the occupation in the same light as the Soviets in Afghanistan and the potential to turn Iraq virtually into a 51st state. Had there been no coalition troops in Iraq, far from scheming to blow up the Empire State Building, Zarqawi more likely would have been preoccupied mustering insurgents to topple Saddam and his band of secularists. Currently, the Shia, likewise are wary that they will not be acknowledged as the controlling majority whereby they could unravel the secularism of the Baathists and less so of the Kurds. The profound irony here is that we are now struggling to improve upon the secularism of Saddam by persuasion to achieve it democratically, in a gentler kinder nation.
If by this is meant fighting the terrorists over there instead of at home, it is a dangerous strategy as Iraq has shown; for, in order to this the US would be involved indefinitely in the internal affairs of other nations. For one thing, fighting terrorists here at home gives the impression that somehow we are up against some invisible organized army similar to our battles with native Americans. Given that homeland security has its act together to sniff out dirty bombs and perpetrate other common sense preventions, such as setting up a strong front line at transportation entries, ports and borders, the approach here is not to overreact but strategically to ferret out cells meant to do sporadic harm, much like dealing with a vicious crime wave or a devious fifth column. Overseas, the best approach is not to start wars but to safeguard our embassies, bases, and industries as we are supposed to be doing at home.
Moreover, to take the fight to the terrorists should be done through an alliance of diplomatic channels to countries either harboring or fighting terrorists. In the event a country harbors terrorists, severe sanctions should be imposed by the international community until the rogue nation makes every effort to raid the cells and to request military assistance. However, there is a vast difference between a country that harbors terrorists and one that is overrun and victimized by them as in Casablanca, Morocco, posing not only a threat to themselves but also to Europe, especially Spain, by Moroccan terrorist infiltration. The latter should be given every assistance from NATO and the UN to combat the madness of thuggish insurrection. Indeed these organizations are finally beginning to acknowledge this infiltration in Iraq, regardless of US blunders contributing to it.
Until such time as it becomes a foregone conclusion that terrorism is a sinister plot openly encouraged by Islam to unleash its militant jihad in order to return the globe to the worst of antiquity by undermining material and humanitarian progress, there cannot really be a global “war” on terrorism without coöperation from other nations, and devoid of our arrogance to take the battle there simply to protect ourselves.
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: October 25, 2004.
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