International terrorism takes a hit
More Mark Steyn for our collection...Among the instant cliches that sprang up after 9/11 was the notion that a "war on terror" is a meaningless concept. "It is misleading to talk of a âwar on terrorism,â let alone a âwar on global terrorism,â" sniffed the distinguished British historian Corelli Barnett in December. "Terrorism is a phenomenon, just as is war in the conventional sense. But you cannot in logic wage war against a phenomenon, only against a specific enemy."
Most of us warmongers were inclined, if only in private, to agree with Barnett. We assumed "war on terror" was a polite evasion, the compassionate conservativeâs preferred euphemism for what was really going on â a war against militant Islam, which, had you designated it as such, would have been harder to square with all those White House Ramadan photo-ops and the interminable presidential speeches about Islam being a "religion of peace." But hereâs the interesting thing. Pace the historian, it seems you can wage war against a phenomenon. If the "war on terror" is aimed primarily at al-Qaida and those of similar ideological bent, it seems to have had the happy side-benefit of discombobulating various non-Islamic terrorists from Colombia to Sri Lanka. This isnât because these fellows are the administrationâs priority right now, but rather because itâs amazing what a little light scrutiny of international wire transfers can do.
Pre-9/11, almost every country was openly indifferent to terrorismâs global support network. In my own native land, Canada, financial contributions to terrorist groups were tax deductible. Seriously. As part of the repulsive ethnic ward-heeling of the multiculti state, Liberal Party cabinet ministers attended fundraisers for the Tamil Tigers, the terrorist group thatâs plagued Sri Lanka for two decades. These guys are state-of-the-art terrorists: as the old song says, they were self-detonating before self-detonating was cool. Two decades back, they used a female suicide bomber to kill Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian prime minister, and, until the intifada, they were the market leader in "martyrdom operations." Itâs somehow sadly symbolic of the general bankruptcy of Palestinian "nationalism" that even its signature depravity should be secondhand.
But in an odd way Canadaâs indulgence of Sri Lankan terrorism became part of its defense against American accusations that the Great White North wasnât doing its bit in the new war. If you pointed out the huge sums of money raised in Canada for terrorism, Ottawa politicians would roll their eyes and patiently explain, ah yes, but most of thatâs for the Tamils or some such; nothing to do with Osama, nothing Washington needs to get its panties in a twist about. As if destabilizing our Commonwealth cousins in the Indian Ocean had mysteriously become an urgent Canadian policy objective.
THEY WERE doing what most of the rest of us were doing â buying into the conventional wisdom that the "war on terror" was the war that dare not speak its name. But, funnily enough, intentionally or not, the Tamil Tigers wound up getting caught in the net. Their long campaign reached its apogee in a spectacular bloodbath at Sri Lankaâs principal airport just over two years ago, a couple of months before 9/11, back when nobody was paying attention. By February of last year, theyâd given up plans for an independent Tamil state and their chief negotiator in London was suing for peace on the basis of some sort of regional autonomy. Itâs an uneasy truce, but tourists are returning to the island and the Tamil stronghold of Jaffna is being touted as "the new Phuket" (the Thai resort beloved of vacationing Brits).
You can find other examples of long-running local conflicts around the world from Burundi to Nepal that seem to have mysteriously wound down over the last two years. Might be just coincidence, as the mediaâs bien pensants assure us is the case with Colonel Gaddafiâs about-face: nothing to do with Bush and his absurd war, old boy, donât you believe it. Or it might be that putting the bank transfers of certain groups on an international watch list has choked off the funding pump for a lot of terrorism. Even nickelânâdime terrorists need nickels and dimes, and in your average war-torn basket-case state that usually means fundraising overseas.
Corelli Barnett was wrong when he wrote that "you cannot in logic wage war against a phenomenon, only against a specific enemy." For most of the last half-century, the activist Left opposed not a specific enemy but a phenomenon â nuclear weapons. Indeed, insofar as they wished our side to lead by example, they were more concerned by Anglo-American manifestations of the phenomenon rather than the specific enemyâs. In those days, only the US, UK, France, China and the Soviet Union had nukes and the Left was convinced Armageddon was just around the corner: fear of the phenomenon sold a gazillion posters, plays, books, films and LPs with big scary mushroom clouds on the cover. Now that nukes are no longer an elite club of five relatively sane world powers but can be acquired by any ramshackle dictatorship or freelance nut group the Left is positively blas on the subject.
But in their less decayed Cold War state the Left was right to this extent: Sometimes the phenomenon is the enemy. Germanyâs Baader-Meinhof Gang trained in Saddamâs Iraq. The IRA has ties to Gaddafi and to Colombian drug terrorists. Even the old line that "my enemyâs enemy is my friend" doesnât quite cover these alliances: Saddam was pally with the Germans, and Gerry Adams and Co. have enough friends in high places in Washington who wouldnât take kindly to the IRAâs Hispanic outreach. What drew these people together is the phenomenon: the mutual lack of squeamishness about blowing the legs off grannies in pizza houses. In that sense, theyâve more in common with the international piracy and slavery networks of two centuries ago.
The president implied as much in London a few weeks back, in his tip of the hat to the Royal Navy for stamping out the slave trade. As usual, the so-called idiot figured it out quicker than the smart guys: In the days after September 11, he was shrewd enough to identify the real enemy and declare war on it. Two years on, in all kinds of tiny corners of the globe you never hear about on CNN, the bad guys are feeling the heat.
Posted by: tipper 2004-02-04 |