The American Spectator

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6.20.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 5)

The threat of nuclear, radiological ("dirty"), or chemical terrorism is more significant, but not by much. Only with a mass distribution of these weapons all across the country, or a particularly lucky attack in a massive city such as New York, could the death toll even reach a single percentage of the American population. The major impact of these would be psychological, and I think Osama and his friends know well enough that after our morning period, this country would unite and become a nation of terrible vengeance. Biological terrorism is more of a threat due to its self-replicating nature and the fact that the victims of such an attack would carry it across the country. But we can handle a plague, even though it would be horrible.

But our response to 9/11 showed our own weaknesses and strengths. Our military in Afghanistan and Iraq were quick, deceive, and victorious in short order. A poor plan for post-invasion in Iraq created problems, but those were turned around so swiftly most haven't even realized it yet. This is due to our major strength, a well-equipped, honorable, and intelligent military force.

But even as bombs fell on the Taliban and American special forces were leading Afghans to their freedom, our leaders were going to mosques and calling the funders and ideological cousins of the "terrorists" for advice and to assure them that we believed Islam to be a religion of "peace." I am no position to state definitively if Islam is a peaceful religion or not, I can only exam data and decide what it suggests. Since the end of the Vietnam war, every major military action has involved Islam. Not every military action, Grenada, the FARC in Columbia, and others did not involve Islam. But the list of actions involving Islam dwarfs those that do not. What does this tell you? I know what it tells me, but I would not want to change your mind.

But the simple fact is that response to 9/11, to assure the "Muslim" world that we didn't blame them for the atrocities, demonstrates our major weakness: Multi-culturism, and the complete lack of foreign cultures that accompanies it. And the complete lack of will that we have to defend our own culture and all the wonderful things that it has brought the world. And I'm not talking about McDonalds and Hollywood and Rap Music here. I'm talking about equality, tolerance, independence, and liberty.

The real threat, the threat that only a few in the media and Washington want to talk about, is the fact that we, as a nation, have accepted the terrorist's main argument. They argue we are the aggressor, we are the imperial one, we are the unclean.

And how do we respond? Guards at Gitmo wear gloves to give the detainees their required Koran. Why? The guards are the infidels, they are unclean. We are imperials? Why do we not ask for more Federalist Republics, then? We are, after all, the only Federalist Republic in the world. If we're so "imperial" why aren't there more? Both Afghanistan and Iraq wrote their own constitutions, neither of which include strong defense for freedom of religion. If we are so "imperial," why didn't we insist? We are aggressors? Other than Iraq, can you name a single American war that was not in defense of ourselves or someone else? And even Iraq is debatable.

Terrorism is a threat, but it is a minor one. The loss of American values, American ideals, and most importantly, American will to defend these. That is the threat.

And my vote will go to any man who will do his best to stop that threat.
-- Charles Campbell
Austin, Texas

I see that the same old contrasting world views exist with regard to worldwide terrorism. One side views worldwide terrorism as simply another type of organized crime, while the other views it as armed attacks upon a country, or countries, which are sponsored, and in some cases controlled, by nation-states. Let's take a moment to investigate the differences.

Organized criminal enterprises have, as their goal, the acquisition of wealth. They exist to make money, just as legitimate business does. Where they differ from legitimate business is in their willingness to use violence to acquire and maintain wealth. The second manner in which they differ from terrorists is that they do not seek to change the society or culture in which they live and operate. They simply view their endeavors as another form of commercial enterprise; albeit one that has a higher risk factor than legitimate enterprises.

Worldwide terrorism, on the other hand, has no interest in the acquisition of wealth, except as a means to fund its on-going activities. The aim of political terrorists is to destroy or change a society, culture or government. They do this through the application of violence.

Now that we have these definitions out of the way, lets investigate other aspects of the criminal enterprise v. war debate.

One point that is continually put forth by those seeking to make the case for worldwide terrorist activities being viewed as criminal enterprises is that wars occur between two of more nation-states and that the combatants on both sides wear readily recognizable uniforms and are directly controlled by the leadership of the nation-state that they represent. As terrorists do not dress in distinctive uniforms bearing the name and flag of a recognized nation-state, they are, therefore, an independent criminal enterprise. We know, however, that most international terrorist groups and all fundamentalist Islamic terrorist groups are directly funded and directed by one, or more, nation-states. Historically, this would remove them from the classification of criminal enterprise and place them squarely in the classification of irregular military forces. And historically, captured irregular military forces fall under the authority of the military command of the opposing nation-state and have only those rights and privileges that are enumerated in various treaties governing the conduct of war among nations.

Based upon these definitions, it appears that very little credibility can be assigned to the notion that worldwide terrorism is a criminal enterprise. It does, in fact, meet the definition for irregular military forces. Therefore, I would propose that the struggle to oppose worldwide terrorist forces is a war, not a police action, and should be waged as such.

I would just like to add one observation to this discussion. The quibbling over the definition of terrorism being warfare or simple criminal behavior is not the heart of the problem. There exists, in the minds of many people in the United States, the failure to view anything as being a personal threat. They refuse to view reality as it is. Why? Because to do so would mean that they would have to acknowledge the fact that they have little personal control of the happenings on this planet. We are, individually, of little importance on a global scale and being unimportant scares some people more than the threat of death. So, if we can only identify terrorists as cowardly little criminals who skulk in the shadows, we are important and they are not. Unfortunately, political terrorists are the same. They wish to be important, too. Unfortunately, they are usually highly motivated, intelligent and dedicated individuals who will ruthlessly strive to achieve their aims. Those aims are simply to change the world through the destruction of our society at any cost. How would you combat them?
-- Michael Tobias

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Mainstream Media, Business, Social Security, Satire, Religion, Islam, Hollywood, Constitution, Law, Military, Iraq, NATO, Africa, Oil, Unions