KEEPING OUR BALANCE
(UPDATE: The political section of Memeorandum has a story on a new audiotape from Osama Bin Laden vowing never to be taken alive, and continuing to proclaim victory over the west.)
For the last few months, I've tried to keep this blog focused on technology/internet related issues, with an occasional indulgence into other realms that interest me, including politics. This post is one of those moments, by way of a heads-up.
This commentary titled "Bush and Blair have brilliantly done Bin Laden's work for him" in the UK's Sunday Times was sent to me by a friend today (thanks, Joe).
Much in it grates against my party proclivities, especially the bits of Bush and Blair-bashing through the piece. And there are bits which take easy pot-shots at western political actions since 9/11 (it'll be half a decade ago this September) that seem to be a bit over-indulgent.
However, regardless of party politics, there are several bits that hit home for me, and are food for thought. I'd like to highlight those bits here for you.
First, the piece starts off with:
"Is Osama Bin Laden winning after all? Until recently I would have
derided such a thought. How could a tinpot fanatic who is either dead
or shut in some mountain hideout hold the world to ransom for five
years? It would stretch the imagination of an Ian Fleming.
Now I am beginning to wonder. Not a day passes without some new
sign of Bin Laden’s mesmeric grip on the governments of Britain and
America. His deeds lie behind half the world’s headlines. British
policy seems obsessed with one word: terrorism."
Then there're the following collage of observations:
"On any objective measure, terrorism in the West is a trivial crime..."
"Indeed if ever there were a case for collective restraint it is in
response to terrorism. The word refers to a technique, usually a bomb,
not an ideology. A bombing is an anarchic gesture calling for police
and medical services. It becomes a political weapon only if publicized
and answered with hysteria. A killing is so staged as to cause
over-reaction, violent response, mass arrests and a decay of civilized
values. Bin Laden’s intention in 2001 was to portray the West as
scared, emotionally vulnerable, over-reactive, decadent and careless of
liberal values. The West has done its damnedest to prove him right..."
"Were I Bin Laden I could not have dreamt that the spirit of 9/11 would
be so vigorous five years on. I have western leaders still parroting my
motto that “9/11 alters everything” and “the rules of the game are
changed”. I have the Taliban resurgent, financed by Europe’s voracious
demand for oil and opium. I have the Pentagon and Scotland Yard paying
me the compliment of a “long war” of indefinite duration. My potency is
said to require more defence spending than was needed to contain the
might of the Soviet Union..."
"There never was a “terrorist threat” to western civilisation or
democracy, only to western lives and property. The threat becomes
systemic only when democracy loses its confidence..."
"The vitality of British and American democracy has always been its
ability to produce antibodies when truly challenged by an internal or
external menace..."
Those are some of the bits had resonance with me. You may find others as you read the whole piece.
For most of my waking hours (and likely some of my asleep hours), my tech-tinged brain is constantly at work trying to re-evaluate investment opportunities in industries like media, communications, telecommunications etc., due to the nascent, but increasingly powerful disruption in the traditional economics of Attention.
If one looks at the world of politics through the same filter of Attention, it becomes absurdly clear that the traditional economics of Attention in our national life has also been disrupted.
And perhaps the risk-reward prospects for returns to us as citizens has also been disrupted to our detriment. Some food for thought on this President's Day.
Postscript:
A reader, Simon Cast, makes some good points in a comment below that I'd like to highlight and address:
First, he says "The threat of islamofascist(sp?) terrorism is real whether driven by Bin Laden or another figure."
I agree...Bin Laden is the figurehead but it's an organic, shifting set of movements that the west is fighting. My post has to do with the general "threat of islamofascits" rather than just Osama Bin Laden.
Second, Simon comments
"Proclaiming that the response of the West is wasted etc because there
have been few major terrorism attacks in Western attacks is the same as
people proclaiming we didn't have to spend money on the Y2K problem
because nothing happened. Nothing happened because we did spend the
money to fix Y2K issues."
I have no doubt that much of the West's policing efforts have had preventative effects on the terrorist threat. The broader issue here seems to be the on-going threat from terrorism as the main driver for much of the governing of the country and our interactions with the rest of the world.
The Y2K example, while relevant for the period, doesn't hold long-term because it had a finite, definable date that the threat ended. This terrorism threat obviously is an open-ended situation. But using the fear of that threat to politically drive a big chunk of how our government operates in so many unrelated spheres is something that we need to be more thoughtful about as a democracy.
I thank Simon for this thoughtful comment.
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