Terrorists—It’s Them or Us

Blasts Hit Three London Subway Stations, One Bus...--AP, Huffington Post July 21, 2005

The real conspiratorial-minded among us see this as a Blair/Bush plot to once again bump the Rove issue off the main headlines. Since terrorist plans tend to be formulated months, if not years, ahead of the event, the Rove issue as an incentive is doubtful.

However there are real considerations of terrorists and their overall similar mindset. My friend Christopher Dickey, brilliant terrorist analyst and Newsweek reporter, described this psychology yesterday in his latest post to his Shadowland column. But even more telling is how we--the potential and actual victims—tend to react to terrorist activity:

Any effort to understand the enemy or his motivations is treated as an apology for what he does. At times we seem to be infected by the very pathology we are fighting against.—Untrue Believers, Christopher Dickey, Newsweek July 20, 2005

In light of the attempt to bomb London’s tube again today, Chris’s description, yesterday, of the enormous wrong detour that Bush and Blair have taken into Iraq is worth dwelling on, today:

...since the detour into Iraq it seems the intellectual compass of those who led us there has gotten lost in a fog of moral pieties, and sweet reason has surrendered to missionary zeal. To be a true believer in the Global War on Terror you are supposed to believe that we are fighting terrorists in Iraq, but that they would never think of fighting back outside of Iraq.--Untrue Believers

The only question remaining, after all the recent events of terrorists, war, and Bush White-House deceit, is why is what Chris has written so hard to understand? Who can really believe that our occupation of Iraq is going to help anything in a positive way—Iraq is on the verge of a civil war, US ground commanders complain about the huge shortage of troops to quell the insurgency, terrorist cells are growing world wide without a major intelligence effort to stop it—all due to the bleeding of resources to support US presence in Iraq.

People lack confidence in the credibility of our government…It’s a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy…With the secrecy, it’s impossible. The American people will do what’s right when they have the information they need.—Donald Rumsfeld, Chicago Tribune, 4/13/66