The terrorist threat in some ways is far more dangerous than the Nazis or Japanese during World War II. It is a new form of warfare. We are fighting a global guerilla war, yet we are still fighting and thinking in terms of conventional war.
As I write these words, it is my sincere prayer that the President and his men have finally “got it” regarding terrorism and that they plan to act big and to act fast. Unless we realize that the very future of Western Civilization hangs by a precarious thread, we could face a very dark world indeed. What is clear from the 9/11 Commission's report is that no one “got it” about global terrorism since the decline of the Soviet Union. The reasons for the failure to intercept the 9/11 plans and understand the new world danger are many, varied and now historical. Assigning blame is now both irrelevant and political sport. Trying to find a scapegoat for the troubles of America and the Free World is a natural but a primitive response. It is not the response of serious thoughtful people.
The free world faces the greatest threat to its existence since Hitler’s Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire. It is almost like one can hear Adolf Hitler screaming from Hell, “I have let loose millions of my agents like cancer cells to wreak my revenge at the world for so humiliating me.” The terrorist threat in some ways is far more dangerous than the Nazis or Japanese during World War II. It is a new form of warfare. Like great empires that used the last military strategy and technology of weapons, we can fall to a smaller force with more lethal weaponry or tactics. We are fighting a global guerilla war and we are still fighting and thinking in terms of conventional war. To the extent we are fighting guerilla warfare we are one step behind the desperate innovators. Like Britain’s defeat against the American Revolution or our defeat in Vietnam, the war against terror is far from a sure victory. The bad guys often lose but sometimes win. We can’t afford defeat.
There are many reasons why America was so blindsighted by 9/11. For starters, the US has always seen itself as protected by two great oceans from the rest of the world. Since World War II, the United States focused its efforts on winning the Cold War against the Soviet Union. For a brief period of time, America and much of the world were euphoric. Serious thinkers were arguing that we had reached “the end of history” and “end of ideology.” The ultimate triumph of liberal democratic capitalism was at hand. After a few short moments of joy, we were reminded in Iraq and by the barbaric outbreak of violence in the former Soviet empire, that all was not well.
In many ways the terrorist threat had been trivialized and marginalized. The source of terror was marginalized by the delusional thinking that said that Arabs or Muslims were frustrated and had an implacable hatred toward Israel and Jews. America was hated because of its relationship to Israel. This perspective completely overlooked the cultural changes taking place in the Islamic community over the last generation. It overlooked the fact that Muslims ruthlessly killed other Muslims or Christians with the same atrocity and fanaticism as they killed Jews. Whole towns and populations were massacred. The deep-seated violence and historic memory of old Yugoslavia and the wholesale butchery of one group against the next were an exception in Europe but the rule of thumb in the Middle East. Before the creation of colonial nation-states, tribal warfare based on property and religious fervor were (and largely remain) the way of life. This bred a new revolutionary Islam aimed at blaming the plight of the largely poor masses on many and nefarious anti-Islamic conspirators. This included the capitalist system, a world Jewish conspiracy, colonial oppression, and resentment toward those who got wealthy working with the conspirators. Thus was born the Jihadist spirit in the Arab and Islamic world. The House of Saud saw the seeds of this trend but had always co-opted it by adopting the extreme Wahabbi sect of Islam. Unfortunately the Devil has come to collect its debt—even against the Saudi family. No amount of bribes can now pay for the terrorists to keep Saudi assets safe. The terrorists now believe the very source of world energy is within their grasp.
In case you haven’t noticed, Israel is a sideshow in all of this. Sure the Arabs hate the Jews and would like to get rid of Israel. It’s just too bad for them that Jews are not willing to oblige. The whole conflict comes down to that. Any moral person must in the broad sweep of things be sympathetic to Israel. Quite naturally Israel and Jews who have been literally fighting for physical survival for the last century first saw the true nature of the threat. People like Menachem Begin, Benjamin Netanyahu or Walter Lacquer were the first to cry in the wilderness that this was the next Great War. Why are so-called “paleo-conservatives” suspicious that many Jews held hard-line views about terror that were against the need to fight it aggressively? Smart people would assume that the victims of unprecedented terror would be the first to see its tremendous evil possibilities.
The Bush Administration must “think and act anew.” Our enemy is as deadly as Hitler. Time is short. We were fortunate that we stayed one step ahead of Germany in the development of the nuclear bomb through the Manhattan project. What a surprise again. The victims of Nazi oppression, Jews escaping Europe, were the scientists in the forefront of developing the Bomb. We need a Manhattan Project to build the equivalent of “the Bomb” against terrorism. It is not enough to rearrange the deck chairs or just have more efficient bureaucracy and military to guard against the Terror Threat. I do not have the answer. Hopefully the best minds in the country and friends from around the world will discover the new “Bomb” in the nick of time.
For those paleo-conservatives who are angered by my remarks, I can only say the following. Yes, I am Jewish. I am not a neo-con, but much more of a fairly hard-line libertarian who still believes in collective self-defense. Perhaps my heritage has made me more sensitive to the implacable and awful nature of genocide and terrorism in the past and now. I am just too tired of seeing so many good people killed by crazy murderers. Great peoples and great empires have failed to see great danger ahead and have either been put in concentration camps, sent into exile, or just become extinct. Think of the mighty Sumerians! Did the Roman Emperors ever dream they would become part of “Ancient History?” It’s time for those who value a free world for us and our children to be ready to man the barricades.
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