Shane SmithThe Dual Failures of the War on Terror
“We are not here to fight the Taliban, but to make them irrelevant.” Head of Dutch Forces, Afghanistan
I was listening to a commentary on Spanish separatist terrorists the other day, which in turn triggered a quote from The West Wing TV show. “What strikes you most about terrorism?” a student asks one of the main characters. “It’s 100% failure rate. Not only do terrorists always fail at what they are after, but they pretty much always succeed in strengthening whatever it is that they are against.” The Ira? The Brits and protestants are still there. The Basks in Spain? The Red Brigades? Nov. 17? Even the Weatherman. None of them achieved what they wished. Until.
The IRA has begun achieving some modest goals. Since they disarmed. And they disarmed because people were willing to speak. On both sides.
Not only does terrorism almost always strengthen what it is against, but violent response almost always strengthens terrorism. Palestine and Israel are the text book example. The Palestinians feel they have no recourse but to resort to terrorism. And Israel knows that they can’t let that happen without an armed response. And an armed response has to be met by Palestine. And there is almost always escalation……
An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. -Ghandi
We were, once upon a time, interested in pouring money into Afghanistan to buy weapons and chase the Russians out. But when it came time to build schools, we weren’t interested.
If Russia and the US were really interested in the welfare of the people of Vietnam, they would have built schools, not bases; brought teachers, not soldiers; planted rice, not land mines. That is the true way to win friendship, the true actions of great nations. -Thich Nhat Hahn
So the real question is, where is todays Afghanistan? Where should we be winning hearts and minds before they attack us?
November 20th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Still Afghanistan. No so much so they won’t attack us, but just so we can finally leave that county in peace.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Wrong. Here are some recent examples where terrorism worked.
Haganah and the Irgun in the Palestine Mandate forced the Brits to leave.
Zimbabwe, South Africa and the ANC.
Kurdistan.
PLO.
Ireland (not Northern Ireland)
I also think that you can safely say that the actions at the Boston Tea Party were “terrorism” in that they were aimed at the State and it’s agents and by doing so, forced an overreaction by the State that mobilized the people.
This is very much different from the failure of the champagne revolutionaries (terrorists) like Giangiacomo Feltrinelli.