Bin Laden Who?

In an article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/8123261/Osama-bin-Laden-appoints-new-commander-to-spearhead-war-on-West.html) about Bin Laden’s appointment of a new “chief of international operations” (is that what it says on the door to his cave? Did he get a corner cave office?), the article writer says the new appointee “is believed to have conceived of the wave of stirkes that set off terror alerts across Europe recently, as well as last week’s mid-air parcel-bomb plot.”

This sentence didn’t sit well with me and got me thinking about things I haven’t thought about in a while. The choice of words in the phrase “believed to have conceived” is somewhat off-putting. When I think of someone conceiving something (besides children), I think of someone execptionally intelligent or working exceptionally hard creating something new for the benefit of all. I think of mad tinkerers finally coming up with something that works (yeah, I’m picturing Christopher Lloyd as well). I think of Einstein and Newton. I think of city parades heralding the genius’ newest invention or idea. Maybe it’s the word conceived, but something about that sentence struck me as odd when applied to some terrorist living in the world’s rat hole (yeah, I’m talking about you, Southeast Asia). I picture the terrorists more as schoolyard bullies, acting on perverted instinct and the whims of their misguided perceptions of the world. I do not intend to imply that terrorists are stupid or incapable of highly-inventive plots. But I do intend to pronounce my utter lack of respect for them. And not that every death caused by a terrorist act is not a tragedy and not that we as a civilized society should not act to prevent more of these attacks, but I’d like to see all those who find themselves the target of terrorists heave a collective shoulder of indifference and go about our lives.

For the most part (9/11 being the obvious exception), terrorist attacks do not cause large numbers of deaths. Though it seems many terrorist groups have remarkable funding, they’re not able to form large armies or carry out large-scale operations that massacre thousands upon thousands. The terrorist’s success lies not in how many he has killed, but in the fear that results from an attack. Finally the English language comes through with clarity and an immediate link between word and meaning. A terrorist is aptly named. Because of a terrorist network’s lack of centralized location, the way we fight them is different from any traditional enemy. I posit that our first reaction to terrorists is to treat them like an annoying housefly. If their intent is to cause fear, do not allow them to cause fear. While there are a number of things that we can do to prevent future attacks, the answer is not to burrow down in our holes, create massive amounts of security intrusions into our private lives, or spend massive amounts of money and lives on endless wars. Doing all that while allowing the fear to stagnate at the bottom of our collective consciousness only wastes all previous effort.

Looking back, the first thing we should have done after 9/11 was to invade Afghanistan. No inch of that God-hated country should have been vacant of a U.S. soldier. The Iraq war was quite controversial. Under the circumstances, I do believe that we were right in going in to that country. There was sufficient evidence, even though later cast into serious doubt, that Saddam Hussien had weapons of mass destruction. The world, not just the U.S., gave him multiple opportunities to come clean. He played around with us, exepecting to get away with whatever he wanted to get away with as he always had. We gave him a deadline to prove he didn’t have the weapons, he sent evidence that wasn’t new nor did it prove he didn’t have any weapons, and we invaded. The only problem was the timing. The explicit link between the terrorist attack against us and Iraq is not there. We should have been in Afghanistan. So instead of a war that is not progressing but merely trying to make up for wasted years, we are mired in Afghanistan with no clear end in sight (mostly because we refuse to define what victory is. As a sidenote, I’ll define victory in Afghanistan: a third world country with the means to join the first world countries: jobs, education, a corrupt free central government. The eradication of the poppy fields with initiatives to turn poppy farmers into farmers of foods and crop products that benefit the country rather than any illegal group. Turn it into a place that Islamic radicalism has no place. Easier said than done, but it doesn’t seem like anyone [though there are glimmers of hope, one of which was fired for being stupid] has the guts to do what is needed). And we are mired there because of fear. We as the American people are fearful. And the politicians read our fear (and probably more accurately incited and expanded it) and did something about it. Only what they did didn’t dissolve our fear. It increased it by creating an open-ended situation. The terrorists are still alive and well. They’re still planning attacks. But we’re spending billions of dollars and a large number of lives to essentially maintain the status quo.

When will America produce a leader that is more interested in doing what this country needs and not pandering for votes. I want a candidate to mount the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, call everyone currently in power little weakling girls who cry to their mommies, and do what is necessary to win this war and erase the fear. It can be done. George Bush showed he might have this leadership quality. Mounting the rubble with bullhorn in hand, he cast himself as the leader the situation demanded. But Iraq cost him. It diverted his and our attention, and except for a numer of significant successes (the current state of Iraq is one) we are no better, and perhaps worse, than we were immediately after 9/11. America is the strongest and greatest country in the world. It needs to act like it by setting the global tone. The leader who can help do that will not listen to all the nonsense criticism that has been leveled at this country. We live in a world of jealous countries. We can’t expect reasoned criticism to come from England, Russia, France, or any other country in its current twilight.

But more than likely, Bin Laden’s new chief of international operations will become quite cozy in his new cave office. Unless a missile gets him, in which he’ll be replaced by some other devil, he’ll enjoy a long career of plotting his miniscule plots. And we’ll toss and turn in our collective bed, maybe even wet our jammies, and pray to the power-hungry to please save us from the bad men. They’ll sit in opulent rooms and devise a plan not to win or to eliminate the threat, but to quiet the masses and gain votes. They won’t need to revisit their plan for a number of years, when the hystery reaches another boiling point. Then they’ll return to their opulent rooms and devise a plan exactly like the first one. And when I finally pass away, I’ll probably lay on my mind and understand the Bible verse that says a day is like a thousand years to God, just as a thousand years is a day to Him because this whole terrorist fiasco will encompass most of my adult life, and I’ll realize on the distant (hopefully) date in the future that nothing has changed since 9/12/01 except some money spent and some American lives lost.