Posted on 01/19/2004 10:40:21 AM PST by George Frm Br00klyn Park
WBAL - AM Radio 1190 Baltimore, Md.
Ron Smith's "Something to Say" Commentary
Waging War Against a Tactic
Monday, January 19, 2004
Ron Smith
This “war on terrorism” is wearing on me. The likelihood of any one of us becoming a victim of Osama bin Laden’s henchmen is next to zero. Yet we are bombarded with color-coded “terror alerts” designed to keep us perpetually alarmed, and thus willing to suffer whatever our various federal, state and local governments wish to inflict upon us in the name of keeping us “safe.”
Terrorism is a tactic, a method by which people with political grievances wage war on whomever they believe is oppressing them. Whether it’s the IRA bombers in the U.K., Palestinians blowing themselves up to kill Israelis, Chechen warriors battling the Russian Army in their homeland, or Basque separatists kidnapping and killing Spanish judges, these are men (increasingly joined by their women) who are willing to fight and die in order to change a system they loath.
Waging “war” on a tactic doesn’t make sense. Modern history shows that the people who feel themselves political outcasts, oppressed by their government or by alien military and economic dominance imposed upon them stop fighting only when political solutions are implemented.
If military superiority and the willingness to bring it to bear against indigenous guerilla opposition was a workable strategy, France would still own Algeria; Israel would not be suffering bus-bombings in Tel Aviv, and our quick conquest of Iraq would have stood as a clear victory rather than degenerating as it has into a bloody, protracted colonial occupation.
When the French, the Germans, the Spanish and the Italians are victimized by terrorist acts, they treat them as the crimes they are and hunt down and punish the perpetrators. This is what we should have done, in my opinion, after the attacks of 9/11. Instead our government decided to declare itself at war with terrorism in general.
This is a war that cannot be won and isn’t worth the blood, treasure and loss of American constitutional guarantees of liberty taking place under the rubric of making us secure. Governments, by their nature, move against individual freedom. That’s why the framers of the Constitution took such pains to limit the powers of consolidated federal government.
We are now, the majority of us, anyway, apparently willing to slip into shackles, to do whatever our rulers decide is necessary, without protest, because it’ll make us more secure; because it’s better to “fight them over there,” rather than on the streets of our own cities. This is a fallacious proposition. There are no terrorist armies plotting to invade our country. In fact, there aren’t that many terrorists loose in the world, and while the 9/11 attacks were dramatic and dreadful; we shouldn’t lose all perspective because of them.
The chance of any of us being killed or injured in a terrorist attack, I repeat, is infinitesimal. We are at far more risk every time we get behind the wheel and venture onto our streets and highways, every time we’re exposed to a flu bug, and certainly every time we are hospitalized, since hospital-caused illness kills tens of thousands of Americans every year.
The invasion and occupation of Iraq was done for many reasons, which have been debated heatedly for many months. But the idea we are propagandized with incessantly – that this will make us safe from terrorism – is so preposterous that it is simply amazing that the bulk of the American people apparently believe it.
THIS commentary at WBAL
This guy sounds European to me... "it's not my problem, why should I care?" while he's got his head in the sand.
Upset with the phrase "war on terrorism"? Fine, then do what you can to replace it with "war on Islamic totalitarianism" if it pleases you... we're in this war to the finish, either way.
I think you're both right on this. I'm not happy with the fact that we refuse to define this war more accurately. We have to fight it, and we should thereby define it clearly. It is not a war on 'terror', it is a war on militant Islam. It can be beaten into submission, just like anything else, and it will be.
Maybe I just like calling a spade a spade, but I don't like open ended 'wars on common nouns' by the government. You can't declare victory on a tactic, and when victory does come, the war might not end.
So far most of the people who have responded are sputtering about how the "global war on terror" is not only necessary but winnable.
They miss the crux of the matter shown in the quote above.
Regards
J.R.
I realize it would ruffle a lot of feathers to call this 'The War on Al Qaida' or 'The War on Islamic Terrorism', but I for one would feel a lot better about it.
I disagree with the writer, and the replies.
First, I do not misunderstand my freedom. I know that as a US Citizen, I enjoy a relative freedom, relatively better than the citizens of many other countries have. I realize that nothing in life is free. The standards of freedom we have in the US were bought by human life and sacrifice. Those standards will diminish if payments are not kept up.
This is not a war against Islam. This is not a war against Al Queda. This is not a war against Bin Laden.
This is a war against EVIL. Pure and simple. It is being pursued abroad and at home.
NOW, are you with us, or are you against us? There is no fence to sit on.
These are basically the words President Bush has stated over and over in speeches and discussions. The name "AXIS OF EVIL" was coined recently to describe the collusion of nations supporting worldwide organized crime (oooops, that's the UN, not the AXIS OF EVIL!)
Saddam released the worst of the worst of his criminals prior to the coalition strike. That was evil.
The US releases murderers and rapists from jail early, while 19-year olds serve 15-20 for possession of pot. In the US, the murderers and rapists are the President, staff, Senators and Congressmen. That is evil as well.
There are multi-pronged attacks on the evil in the US government going on right now, being initiated by The President, and being imitated by staff, other agencies and their staff. Most of these are briefly noted in the news, but not well read or understood. President Bush is doing his part in the war on evil. What are we doing?
I will paraphrase this, as I don't have the exact quote or author, but...... a famous US President, during the war, was asked "Do you think God is on our side?"
His response was "I just hope We are on God's side."
Me too.
I listened Ron Smith show for the last 12 or so years. For those who is outside of his listening area, Ron is proud of his moniker "The Voice of Reason". He was a marine. He usually keeps the arguments coolheaded and rarely has shouting matches with the opposition.
Despite my respect to Ron, I disagree with him on WOT.
Terrorism is a tactic, a method by which people with political grievances wage war on whomever they believe is oppressing them. [...] Waging “war” on a tactic doesn’t make sense. Modern history shows that the people who feel themselves political outcasts, oppressed by their government or by alien military and economic dominance imposed upon them stop fighting only when political solutions are implemented.
The root cause of terrorism is its success. It's just a tool., OK, a tactic. If the tool works so well, why would anybody change it? Waging “war” on a tactic doesn’t make sense. Why not? It does make sense to demonstrate without any doubt that the tactic was wrong!
With their "lack of love to Jews", Europeans back in the end of 60th and in the 70th basically rewarded Palestinian terrorism with concessions (admitting known terrorists to UN, releasing hijackers from prisons on demand, etc., you remember the story, I trust). With terrorism Palestinians admitingly were able to achieve success that they or others could not achieve peacefully. They and others learned the lesson. That is a crime against all humanity that terrorism was shown to be a successful tool. Europeans should have never cave in. But they did. Regardless of their suspicion of the Jews, and regardless of the actual merit of the terrorism's cause, terrorism should have been stomped then and there. It was not.
What we can do now is reaffirm anew, that terrorism will not pay. Terrorists and their supporters, including sovereign countries, must pay the price.
When the French, the Germans, the Spanish and the Italians are victimized by terrorist acts, they treat them as the crimes they are and hunt down and punish the perpetrators. This is what we should have done, in my opinion, after the attacks of 9/11. Instead our government decided to declare itself at war with terrorism in general.
This is a war that cannot be won and isn’t worth the blood, treasure and loss of American constitutional guarantees of liberty taking place under the rubric of making us secure.
Ron Smith is wrong. Terrorism is organized and supported by the cool heads who calculate how the results will benefit them and their cause. What gun fodder they use is less relevant that what organizers think. Note, they are not sacrificing themselves. They prefer to stay in a shadow AND alive. When they will see that terrorism as tactic stopped being beneficial, they will stop supporting it.
Historically, terrorism was invented as a means of government, not as a means of opposing them. Terror as a political policy was first experimented with by the Roman emperors Caligula, Nero, and Domitian. In the French Revolution its use expanded to the control of entire populations, a practice brought to perfection by Hitler and Stalin. Any government that seeks its ends by instilling a sense of perpetual dread in the people is by definition terrorist.
Terrorism waged by governments against their own people has killed and blighted the lives of literally billions of people; compared to this, the casualties of terrorism waged against political establishments are virtually invisible.
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