Aside from the problem with the "War on Terror" being undeclared, dishonestly targeted, and unfocused beyond any possible conclusion, I think perhaps there's another problem with the mentality.
Really it seems like there is a block of people that would like this to be the new cold war (terror, its the new red). There was a certain galvanizing property of the cold war, very good for government getting to do what it wants without much oversite, extremely good for defense contractors, good way to keep people afraid just enough - like you were fairly certain the Russians would never launch, but in the back of your mind it was always there.
This seems to be what the current state of things in the US is about. It's systemic right down to the color code. Today is yellow, which means "do whatever you were going to do anyway but be a little bit more afraid."
If this is the new cold war I think we're missing some things. We're missing the bits that gave it some sexiness. Where's the war on terror "red phone," and who is on the other end? Part of the tension of the cold war was that there was this open line of communication open all the time ostensibly for preventing mistakes. Where's the war on terror NORAD or SAC? Why haven't we seem pictures of a high tech command center that looks like the bridge of the Enterprise with some General (or better yet VP Dick Cheney) sitting in the Captain's chair with officers all around him pouring over screens representing Customs, Immigration, Intelligence, Military, Air Traffic Control, Transportation, with each of those consoles connected to 100 other consoles being monitored all around the country? Where's the Situation Room where the General commanding the war on terror sends the bombers to fail safe? These were images that both inspired fear and confidence in US citizens.
I haven't hear much about civil defense strategies, or about grade schools doing terrorism drills. Where's the war on terror "duck and cover?" Why haven't we seen millions of gas masks and radiation detectors being shipped to schools all over the country? How come we each haven't gotten a letter in the mail instructing us what we are supposed to do in the event of a terrorist attack?
Oh wait, they did tell us: plastic sheet and duct tape. That never would have flown in the 50s or in the 80s.
Could it be that the population of today is just too cynical to buy any of this crap? All things being equal, duck and cover wasn't going to save any lives. You were fairly likely to starve in your personal fallout shelter or be killed for your supplies. Is it possible the reason that there's no SAC to speak of because there would be nothing to strike? That there's no NORAD analog because you simply would have to watch everything? That there's no Red Phone because there's nobody to be on the other end of the line?
Could it be that the little bit of comfort we had knowing that the Russian's wouldn't launch because they could count on being pounded in response just doesn't exist when the adversaries have so little to lose and so much to gain?
This isn't the new Cold War at all. The government should stop trying to spin it that way. These are problems that will have to be solved, not outlasted or outspent. Fear is not a weapon here for us, the enemy will not be afraid of our arsenal. Really weapons are not a weapon here for us because they have a seemingly inexhaustible force, and almost nothing in the way of hard targets. This fight will have to be waged in a very different way, through outreach, education, pop culture, and development aid - and likely through some hard choices about governments we've been allied with for a very long time. We need to change our footing to be able to wage this war. We don't need more weapons, we need to stop being dependent on that part of the world. We don't need to kill people, we need to make them understand that they don't really want to die. We don't need to convert people to western capitalist democracies, we need them to come to the conclusion that we are the way of the future.
As long as we keep trying to resolve this conflict in the ways we've used in our past we will be wasting our time. We need some New Jack Cops to take down a New Jack Gangsta. Or something like that. Mario Van Peebles for President, Judd Nelson for Secretary of State, Ice-T for Secretary of Defense, and Chris Rock for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
It might not work, but at least you could be sure it would be different.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Is the "War on Terror" the New Cold War?
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4 comments:
A post I wish I'd written. Really well-said, David.
wonderful, articulate "column"...you might add the tv shows, like "I Was a Communist For the FBI" in the '50's.
And to whom shall we refer as the war on terror's Joe McCarthy?"....we have so many candidates, but none stands out like he did.
the elder
Loved, loved, loved this post. I do have to comment on just one very small statement (in what is probably my favorite sequence, in the midst of some great writing), at the risk of sounding un-American...
"We don't need to convert people to western capitalist democracies, we need them to come to the conclusion that we are the way of the future."
Why are we -- assuming you mean America -- the way of the future? It's a rhetorical question, really. I think whether we like it or not, China and India are going to overtake us very shortly as the 21st Century New World. At its simplest, I think that unlimited commercial growth, and a political democracy, were the two things that made America the way of the future in the turn of the 20th Century. Nowadays, China and India are closer to the oil, and that geographical fact is something that cannot be gotten around, no matter how many pipelines we want to build through countries we kinda-sorta are friends with. Our imports FAR outweight our exports. Look at our clothing, even our food. Does it say Made in the USA? And, while I would fully agree that China's government, for example, has a lot to learn in the realm of human rights... I must point out that, these days, so do we. So I'm not sure where that leaves us.
That being said I hope you keep on this theme... hammer on it all you want, is my vote. Thanks again.
There is a "NORAD" for the war on terror. It's called the Homeland Security Operations Center (HSOC). http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=30&content=3813
And it's just like you imagine it to be: a huge video wall and dozens of individual stations for each agency with computers everywhere. It even comes complete with its own commanding general. I spent five months manning one of those stations last year.
So take comfort that there's at least that one similarity to inspire you with fear and confidence.
As for solving this problem through outreach, education, pop culture and whatnot... that would be nice but unrealistic. The people who are radical enough to commit mass murder are doing it because of religious mania. They want to see an Islamic world that encompasses the globe and they will settle for nothing less. You're never going to convince anyone that their religion is wrong, especially not someone who is so committed that he's willing to blow himself to smithereens because of it. Theirs may be a perverted version of Islam, at odds with the traditional Muslim theology but it is what they deeply believe and trying to talk them out of it would be an exercise in futility.
As for pop culture? That's one of things they hate about us, that motivates them to do what they do. More of it will only be salt in the wound.
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