The Wages of Weakness

Powerline Blog ^ | May 16, 2007 | John Hinderaker

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

In today's Wall Street Journal, Bernard Lewis, our pre-eminent scholar of the Islamic world, has a brilliant column on the view of the United States and the Soviet Union that Osama bin Laden and other terrorists formed during the Cold War, and how that conception, challenged in the aftermath of September 11, has been revived by our lack of fortitude in Iraq. An excerpt:

During the Cold War, two things came to be known and generally recognized in the Middle East concerning the two rival superpowers. If you did anything to annoy the Russians, punishment would be swift and dire. If you said or did anything against the Americans, not only would there be no punishment; there might even be some possibility of reward....

During the troubles in Lebanon in the 1970s and '80s, there were many attacks on American installations and individuals--notably the attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, followed by a prompt withdrawal, and a whole series of kidnappings of Americans, both official and private, as well as of Europeans. There was only one attack on Soviet citizens, when one diplomat was killed and several others kidnapped. The Soviet response through their local agents was swift, and directed against the family of the leader of the kidnappers. The kidnapped Russians were promptly released, and after that there were no attacks on Soviet citizens or installations throughout the period of the Lebanese troubles.

I commented on Lewis's column on our AOL site.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

IIRC, the bodies of the cousins of the kidnappers were found with their penises sewed in their mouths. Bill Casey commented, "The Russians speak Hamas' language."

[Bulldawg Fan]

While the Russians arent good at formal combat.....see Afghanistan.....they are masters at fighting in the darkness of special ops. Their agents know their targets and make sure their targets get what is coming to them. Once family members of terrorists begin showing up dead in various poses, the bad guys get the message and back off.

If only we could learn that lesson.

[pnh102]

While the Russians arent good at formal combat.....see Afghanistan.....they are masters at fighting in the darkness of special ops.

I would say that is more true of the old USSR than modern Russia. Even when the USSR was at the brink of collapse, you never heard of terrorists ever being able to attack civilians inside the country the way they do now. Perhaps Russia needs to go back to fighting terrorists the dirty way again. God knows we certainly need to do the same thing.

[Steely Tom]

Of course, Bill Casey wasn’t around to hear about Beslan.

[El Gato]

While the Russians arent good at formal combat.....see Afghanistan.....they are masters at fighting in the darkness of special ops

The Afghan war was more special ops than "formal combat". Black ops is what the Russians/Soviets are good at. They once were darned good at formal combat, ask the Germans. Compared to our Spec Ops folks, Spetnaz bites the big one.