No winning strategy over terrorism President Vladimir Putin, citing the need to fight terrorism moved to increase his personal power at the expense of the constitution of the Russian federation. "the governors or presidents of the country's 89 regions would no longer be elected by popular vote but rather by local parliaments — and only on the president's recommendation." from the NYTimes of Monday Sept. 13, 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/international/europe/13CND-RUSS.html?hp
This is a man who has given no indication of any sympathy to democratic aspirations. Now the tactics of terrorism have created enough instability that he can, without much political risk, take these steps to consolidate power. Freedom of the media was already sharply curtailed. Now we can be sure to be reading the "Further Tales of Lubyanka Prison" in a decade or so. As he mobilizes his military to pound the breakaway state of Chechnya into dust one wonders if the terrorists could have possibly won a greater victory.
Today, the headlines from Iraq include 59 dead from an insurgent attack and 25 dead from an American attack. After 9/11 we were cautioned repeatedly that if we changed the way we lived in response to the tactics of terrorism we would be giving them victory. We are giving them a victory of epic proportions.
Every military establisment in the world is unprepared for the tactics of terrorism. We have not yet even gotten past our fear to comprehend that terrorism is a tactic used by our enemies, not an entity in itself. We feel somehow morally superior because we have rules of engagemwnt and they do not. The Israelis have rules of engagement that allow them to go into Gaza or the West Bank and blow up houses or cars that may contain identified enemies. If innocent bystanders are killed it is justified under the rationale of self-defense. The Russians have killed, according to media sources, possibly 25% of the Chechnyan population. Could ll of them have been armed militants. Is it all right that an orgranized regular military kills thousands of innocents when going after a few who use terrorist tactics?
The U.S. evidently has an official policy of not releasing the numbers of innocent Iraqis killed or wounded its military operations.
We are not morally superior. We are merely more comfortable with our own rules. Both sides kill innocents for their political purposes.
We are all paying the price of historical neglect of our relations with the Arab world. I want to be perfectly clear. The Arab world is its own worst enemy. It is angry at us largely because of its own failures. But we have, to our lasting regret, ignored our overdependence on their oil. We could have changed that long ago. We could have foreseen that keeping American troops in Saudi Arabia over time would have brought a reaction. We should have foreseen that our uncritical support of Israel's hysterical policies of self-defense would have made it nearly impossible to have decent relationships with the Arab nations.
I do not advocate abandoning the right of self-defense. I advocate understanding that are losing. Islamic extremism is turning civilization on its ear. Despite all the brave words we are losing every day. The battle is won every time the insurgents attack. It does not matter if we occasionally win a battle. The terrorists win when they mount an attack. We win only when they fail to attack. since the terrorists are capable of attacking on many fronts, we, the nations of the world, need to fight back on as many fronts. We can't do that as separate nations with different policies. We have to coordinate our policies. We have to cooperate even to the extent that we compromise sovereignty. I know that is blasphemy, but this problem is global. The idea that the military of any one nation can solve the defense problems of that nation is now a fallacy. And now the final fallacy. We will have to negotiate with the Islamicists. We might as well start calling them what they are, fighters for a cause. Even though we don't want to respect them and hate their cause, we must accept their existance as a force with an agenda, otherwise we can't even fight them to a draw.
Mel
9:17:09 PM 
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