(no subject)
Jul. 7th, 2005 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xaaraYou've all heard about the terrorist attacks in London by now. If you're there, I hope you're all right.
I don't understand what's going on in the world. I understand it on an objective level, and I can work statistics and casualty counts and risk indices with the best of them. But on a sociological level? I don't understand it at all.
This simple lack of comprehension is why we as a country--we as a Western world--can neither anticipate terror accurately nor fight it effectively. We don't understand our enemies. We can't imagine strapping bombs to our bodies and walking into cafés. We can't conceive of someone to whom fundamentalism is more important than human life. We don't comprehend the series of mental processes that could inspire a man or woman to sacrifice himself for something we cannot perceive as greater good. We keep hoping that if we make noble speeches about the ultimate victory of our "values," the terrorists will go away.
Others have said this much more eloquently, I'm sure, but the old "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" applies well here. We've tried and failed to go into the Middle East without solid knowledge of who lives there, without understanding, to some degree, that neither "al-Qaeda" nor "Taliban" covers the complete definition of "Terrorist." A penny is a coin, but not all coins are pennies.
I don't believe it's too late to revise our strategy. With just a few flexible people in the right places, we can learn something that we are clearly missing: how the mind of a terrorist works. Because terrorism comes down to mind games and attrition, and we cannot afford to lose.
In other (related) news, Tony Blair has the worst job in the world. Someone needs to give that man a hug for me, because I can't do it myself. I have the strongest possible admiration for him, because what he has to get up and deal with on a day-to-day basis would break most people. He's done an incredible job since September 11, and I have the utmost faith in his ability to continue doing his job.
I don't understand what's going on in the world. I understand it on an objective level, and I can work statistics and casualty counts and risk indices with the best of them. But on a sociological level? I don't understand it at all.
This simple lack of comprehension is why we as a country--we as a Western world--can neither anticipate terror accurately nor fight it effectively. We don't understand our enemies. We can't imagine strapping bombs to our bodies and walking into cafés. We can't conceive of someone to whom fundamentalism is more important than human life. We don't comprehend the series of mental processes that could inspire a man or woman to sacrifice himself for something we cannot perceive as greater good. We keep hoping that if we make noble speeches about the ultimate victory of our "values," the terrorists will go away.
Others have said this much more eloquently, I'm sure, but the old "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" applies well here. We've tried and failed to go into the Middle East without solid knowledge of who lives there, without understanding, to some degree, that neither "al-Qaeda" nor "Taliban" covers the complete definition of "Terrorist." A penny is a coin, but not all coins are pennies.
I don't believe it's too late to revise our strategy. With just a few flexible people in the right places, we can learn something that we are clearly missing: how the mind of a terrorist works. Because terrorism comes down to mind games and attrition, and we cannot afford to lose.
In other (related) news, Tony Blair has the worst job in the world. Someone needs to give that man a hug for me, because I can't do it myself. I have the strongest possible admiration for him, because what he has to get up and deal with on a day-to-day basis would break most people. He's done an incredible job since September 11, and I have the utmost faith in his ability to continue doing his job.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-07 08:18 am (UTC)We don't understand our enemies. We can't imagine strapping bombs to our bodies and walking into cafés. We can't conceive of someone to whom fundamentalism is more important than human life.
I tell you, I like Blair more than I like Bush. In the latest coverage, Bush just seems constipated. Then again, I don't like our PM Howard and I'm waiting to see his little frame, near-bald head, greying hair, and his black eyebrows of doom scrunch up on my TV set.