Excellent analysis from Charlie Stross.
I would like to comment that much of the disagreement about "terrorism" seen
on the list recently is due to people using the same word to mean different
things and then discussing at cross purposes. When discussing, remember,
First - define your terms.
The Oklahoma bomber, the Unibomber, the Northern Ireland IRA, the Basque
terrorists, etc. are what I would call "domestic terrorism". They have a
grievance against their own government/country and take illegal actions to
try to obtain some kind of compromise/change of policy. In this type of
terrorism the government in their own country is already engaged in opposing
them and trying to stop/reduce their illegal activities. As some people have
commented, this type of terrorism is difficult to eliminate totally, as the
terrorists are part of the community and melt away to become invisible.
However, this is not the type of terrorism that happened in New York and in
our discussions we just add confusion if we bring in the problems of dealing
with internal terrorism.
The 9-11 terrorist attacks were "state-supported" terrorism. This is where
one country uses terrorists to attack another country without declaring war.
"State-supported terrorism" is what the USA and NATO are now setting out to
remove from our world. It might be a long job. But if examples are made of
one or two countries then other rogue governments might well decide that
"state-supported terrorism" is a suicidal policy and cease following that
path. (Pakistan is already showing a remarkable turnaround in their public
statements). One by one, rogue governments should be given the choice - Do
you want to support international terrorists or do you want the USA and NATO
to destroy your government?
Note that I do not expect that the USA or NATO will "bomb the countries to
dust" as someone put it. There is no need. The rogue government and any
known terrorist bases will be destroyed and possibly some of their military
resources as well. Then, when the next government/leader arises they should
be offered the same choice, along with offers of development aid to rebuild
if they renounce the support of international terrorism. Ongoing supervision
by technical experts who are also assisting the country rebuild would of
course be necessary to ensure that they really had disowned international
terrorism. The USA and NATO have no interest in the religion or social
systems of the Middle East countries and have no desire to "take-over" these
countries. But they are now prepared to say that they will not allow
governments to support international terrorism.
The Israel/Palestine situation seems to me to be more like domestic
terrorism and therefore irrelevant to discussions about how to stop
international terrorism.
The immediate response depends on finding out who was to blame for the
9-11attacks. It is up to the FBI to gather evidence. As we are now
approaching military action, any public information is likely to be
disinformation to avoid giving warning to possible targets. The Taliban and
Bin Laden have frequently been mentioned and by their own statements and
previous actions probably deserve to be attacked. The Taliban has indeed
provided bases for the Bin Laden terrorist group. As several people have
commented, removing the tyrannical Taliban government will help the Afghan
people far more than it will help the USA.
Bin Laden has now denied any involvement in the 9-11 attacks (although
he has been connected to previous terrorist actions). Actually, I am
inclined to give him the benefit of some doubt in this case. At least to the
extent that he did it on his own. He may have provided some men or materials
to assist another organisation but I doubt if his group has the resources to
carry out this attack. Remember we are looking at a five year plan involving
50 or more people who infiltrated the USA. This is more like a military
special ops attack from a foreign country.
IMHO I believe the real culprit could well lie elsewhere.
We shall soon know, and I hope they receive just retribution.
Regards, BillK
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