War Without End?

Washington, D.C. Instead of clearing all of the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters out of Afghanistan, the Bush administration hastily opened up a second front in Iraq. In Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan, the President and his advisers were badly surprised by the willingness of Taliban and al Qaeda soldiers to fight to the death.

Heeding this experience, Pentagon’s tacticians developed a plan of air strikes so devastating they hoped it would leave Saddam Hussein’s soldiers unwilling or unable to fight. There would be no safe place in Baghdad.

CBS News reported that the Air Force had stockpiled 6,000 guidance kits in the Persian Gulf to convert ordinary dumb bombs into satellite-guided bombs, a weapons system that did not exist in the first Gulf War. This time there would be no ground war in Iraq. Even the operation’s name was to frighten the enemy: “Shock and Awe.”

It seemed to work. Forty-four days after the “decapitation attack” of March 19, 2003, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln and pronounced the “Mission Accomplished.”

Little did the President and his advisers suspect, however, that the invasion and occupation of Iraq would galvanize al-Qaida and provoke terrorist resistance of hitherto unexpected proportions. Ironically, there still is almost no place safe in Baghdad. It is now the occupiers who are shocked and awed by the extent, tenacity, and endurance of the terrorists’ war on the occupiers and their apparent supporters.

Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, recently told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: “Our policies in the Middle East fuel Islamic resentment.” This assessment is widely echoed not only by American but also by foreign experts on the Middle East, as well aswell as by the Arab media.

Yet, the Bush administration appears to be determined not to make the changes that Muslims in general and Arabs in particular have been demanding for decades: ending the oppressive Israeli occupation of Arab territories, treating Arabs as equal partners side by side with the state of Israel, and reducing the heavy American control over, and interference in, the countries of the Middle East.

All Western powers, including Britain and Russia, have to recognize that the age of colonialism is gone forever, and that unwanted intruders are likely to meet with angry resistance, non-violent and violent. Just as Americans resented and resisted foreign domination 230 years ago, so the peoples of the Middle East at long last want to be in control of their own affairs.

As long as Americans and other foreigners are seen as a threatto Muslim and Arab self-determination, terrorist violence against Americans and their allies is bound to continue. The President promises victory in a war in which the enemy is hidden and may strike any place any time. Insurgencies may lie low for months and suddenly strike again with deadly force.

Military action can weaken the wave of politically and religiously motivated Muslim terrorism, but it is unlikely to bring lasting peace. To deprive the terrorist cells of their recruits, their funds, and their supplies, they must be isolated and alienated from their supporters and sympathizers. That, however, will only happen if we, the non-Muslim West, cease to occupy their lands, interfere in their internal affairs, and antagonize their sensitivities.

It will not bring peace if we persist in telling them that our way of life is superior and that they must change their social and politicalinstitutions to become more like Western societies. After centuries of Turkish, British, and French colonialism, Muslims are not about to submit to long-term American hegemony.

Polls show that a majority of Americans no longer want to be burdened with costly adventures thousands of miles away from home. If we want to help the less fortunate overseas, we can to it far more productively with economic and educational means than with shock and awe.

The President’s and the neoconservatives’ policy of unilateral interventionism has proven to be a dead end street.

Wolf D. Fuhrig	Home	11-20-05
War Without End?
Washington, D.C. Instead of clearing all of the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters out of Afghanistan, the Bush administration hastily opened up a second front in Iraq. In Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan, the President and his advisers were badly surprised by the willingness of Taliban and al Qaeda soldiers to fight to the death. Heeding this experience, Pentagon’s tacticians developed a plan of air strikes so devastating they hoped it would leave Saddam Hussein’s soldiers unwilling or unable to fight. There would be no safe place in Baghdad. CBS News reported that the Air Force had stockpiled 6,000 guidance kits in the Persian Gulf to convert ordinary dumb bombs into satellite-guided bombs, a weapons system that did not exist in the first Gulf War. This time there would be no ground war in Iraq. Even the operation’s name was to frighten the enemy: “Shock and Awe.” It seemed to work. Forty-four days after the “decapitation attack” of March 19, 2003, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln and pronounced the “Mission Accomplished.” Little did the President and his advisers suspect, however, that the invasion and occupation of Iraq would galvanize al-Qaida and provoke terrorist resistance of hitherto unexpected proportions. Ironically, there still is almost no place safe in Baghdad. It is now the occupiers who are shocked and awed by the extent, tenacity, and endurance of the terrorists’ war on the occupiers and their apparent supporters. Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, recently told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: “Our policies in the Middle East fuel Islamic resentment.” This assessment is widely echoed not only by American but also by foreign experts on the Middle East, as well aswell as by the Arab media. Yet, the Bush administration appears to be determined not to make the changes that Muslims in general and Arabs in particular have been demanding for decades: ending the oppressive Israeli occupation of Arab territories, treating Arabs as equal partners side by side with the state of Israel, and reducing the heavy American control over, and interference in, the countries of the Middle East. All Western powers, including Britain and Russia, have to recognize that the age of colonialism is gone forever, and that unwanted intruders are likely to meet with angry resistance, non-violent and violent. Just as Americans resented and resisted foreign domination 230 years ago, so the peoples of the Middle East at long last want to be in control of their own affairs. As long as Americans and other foreigners are seen as a threatto Muslim and Arab self-determination, terrorist violence against Americans and their allies is bound to continue. The President promises victory in a war in which the enemy is hidden and may strike any place any time. Insurgencies may lie low for months and suddenly strike again with deadly force. Military action can weaken the wave of politically and religiously motivated Muslim terrorism, but it is unlikely to bring lasting peace. To deprive the terrorist cells of their recruits, their funds, and their supplies, they must be isolated and alienated from their supporters and sympathizers. That, however, will only happen if we, the non-Muslim West, cease to occupy their lands, interfere in their internal affairs, and antagonize their sensitivities. It will not bring peace if we persist in telling them that our way of life is superior and that they must change their social and politicalinstitutions to become more like Western societies. After centuries of Turkish, British, and French colonialism, Muslims are not about to submit to long-term American hegemony. Polls show that a majority of Americans no longer want to be burdened with costly adventures thousands of miles away from home. If we want to help the less fortunate overseas, we can to it far more productively with economic and educational means than with shock and awe. The President’s and the neoconservatives’ policy of unilateral interventionism has proven to be a dead end street.

Wolf D. Fuhrig

Home

11-20-05

War Without End?