The testimony of various counterterrorism executives before Congress eloquently described the vast scope and comprehensiveness of the War on...
The testimony of various counterterrorism executives before Congress
eloquently described the vast scope and comprehensiveness of the War on Terror.
The testimony was distinguished by the emergence of a common nomenclature for
the ideological enemy,'Sunni Jihadhism'; an appreciation that some form
of WMD attack against the United States was being planned by the Sunni
Jihadism (we are replacing the variable word "enemy"
with a value now) and
the appreciation that the nature of the struggle was total,
especially in
the ideological realm. And that struggle, far from slowing down, was still
expanding.
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Secretary Donald Rumsfeld provided the broadest description of the
nature of
the conflict and laid out what it took to defeat the enemy.
After more than three years of conflict, two central realities of this war
are clear. The first is that this struggle cannot be won by military means
alone. The Defense Department must continue to work with other government
agencies to successfully employ all instruments of national power. ... A
second central reality of this new era is that the United States cannot win a
global struggle alone. It will take cooperation among a great many nations to
stop weapons proliferation. It will take a great many nations
working together
to locate and dismantle global extremist cells. It takes a great many nations
to gather and share the intelligence crucial to stopping future attacks. Our
friends and allies are increasingly aware that the danger confronting America
is at their doorstep as well, as underscored by attacks in Madrid, Bali,
Beslan, Casablanca, Riyadh, Istanbul, and elsewhere.
What necessarily follows, though it was not specifically stated in the
testimony, is that the consequences arising from the totality of the conflict
will apply to the enemy as well. Defeat when it comes, will result in a loss to
the vanquished proportionate to the scope of the war. To take one example, the
Sunni jihadi WMD threat against America implicitly raises a
corresponding
threat against the Islamic world. Nuclear war, once started, means nuclear war
against Sunni jihadism as well. Osama Bin Laden's wager on September 11
has been called and raised in Iraq. No one will walk away from the table in the
state he sat down. It is already unlikely that Saudi Arabia will survive in its
present form, as Porter Goss' survey suggests. One might add Israel, Iraq and
Iran to the list of nations which will be radically transform by coming events
as well. The truth of Rumsfeld's observation that the war against terror is
largely an ideological battle can be seen in the effect it has had on Islam and
the Western Left. The Sunni jihadis have long maintained that war will
continue until the Islamic flag flew over Downing Street and the White House.
Those being the stakes, it necessarily follows that the War, as
described in the
testimony of the counterterrorism executives, will if it does not result in the
triumph of Islam, mean the ruin of Sunni jihadism and its
Leftist allies.
Vast changes have already taken place in the US and Europe, which we are
reminded will be nothing compared with what is yet to come.
The
href="http://dailydemarche.blogspot.com/2005/02/so-happy-together.html">
Daily Demarche links to a
href="http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/10919732.htm?1c">
Miami Herald piece focusing on the car-bombing of former Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafik Harari, showing how the law of unintended consequences sharpens
-- always tends to sharpen -- the issues along the fault lines of the
underlying
conflict.
The Law of Unintended Consequences warns us to expect the unexpected.
Prepare, then, for the unexpected to take shape as the shockwaves pushing out
from the smoldering crater in Beirut recast crucial relationships around the
world. Whoever orchestrated Hariri's assassination imagined the explosive
event would produce results in accordance with a master plan. It is unlikely,
however, that the master plan included strengthening the bonds between the
United States and France. But closer ties between Paris and Washington will
undoubtedly result from the Hariri murder.
The
href="http://dailydemarche.blogspot.com/2005/02/so-happy-together.html">
Daily Demarche observes that as each side blunders into each other in their
own ways the nature of their antagonism is reshaped in the encounter.
The vortex
expands and acquires its own dynamic.
Message from the Syrian regime to Washington, Paris and Lebanon's
opposition: "You want to play here, you'd better be ready to
play by Hama
Rules - and Hama Rules are no rules at all. You want to squeeze us with Iraq
on one side and the Lebanese opposition on the other, you'd better be able to
put more than U.N. resolutions on the table. You'd better be ready to go all
the way -- because we will. But you Americans are exhausted by Iraq, and you
Lebanese don't have the guts to stand up to us, and you French make a mean
croissant but you've got no Hama Rules in your arsenal. So remember, we blow
up prime ministers here. We shoot journalists. We fire on the Red Cross. We
leveled one of our own cities. You want to play by Hama Rules, let's see what
you've got. Otherwise, hasta la vista, baby.
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