blog.postmodernvillage.com

It is interesting that our greatest recent successes in the War on Terror have been arrests in Pakistan and Great Britain that look a heck of a lot more like the good, old-fashioned police work John Kerry envisions than the (literally) bombastic “smoke ‘em out of their holes” approach favored by George W. Bush.

This seems surprising to a nation steeped in action-flick morality: shoot first with a bigger gun. But it’s less of a shock when you consider that police work is meant to enforce the rule of law in a civilized way, whereas war is the breakdown of law and civilization itself. Policing is directed at behavior, not ideology; it is a governing authority saying, essentially, “We’re not judging your thoughts; we’re judging your actions.” Ideology, after all, is generally strengthened by war, not destroyed by it, and bin-Laden and his followers espouse an ideology more than anything else. Had Nazism not been tied to the notion of the nation state, it might be more popular than it now is. But make no mistake about it: Nazism as an ideology is still around. It has just been discredited in the minds of most moral and reasonable people by Dachau and Auschwitz. You can still think like a Nazi; you just can’t act like one.

Likewise, the defeat of Stalinism was a matter of practicality much more than ideology. It just couldn’t keep up. And those few states that still cling to it – Cuba and North Korea – feel pretty embattled and isolated, which is part of what keeps those systems alive.

And the people who hate America don’t hate it because those people are evil or hate freedom, rather because the U.S. drops bombs on them. If the only people bold enough to fight back are Islamic extremists, then that is going to be seen on the Arab street as a pretty attractive ideology.

Our main problem is that we fail to ascribe basic humanity to the enemy. Certainly, much of what they do is inhumane, but so is supporting the repressive actions of recent Israeli administrations, and so is funding proxy wars in Central America, and so is attacking Iraq on false pretenses. If one were to consider that the terrorists are human just like we are, one would be forced to realize that we’d do much the same thing if we were in their shoes – or worse because, on the whole, Americans are even better armed. If we were in the position of the Iraqis, for instance, we’d not just shoot and bomb our occupiers every day; we’d do it every hour on the hour, taking potshots at the invading army with our 12-gauges and 9 millimeters, our .30-06 deer rifles and our Daisy Red-Riders.

But it is just so much easier to think of “them” as monsters whose blood is comprised of corpuscles of pure evil. That way we don’t have to be deliberate or cautious in our approach; “they” are just so many minions of the Mummy or Dr. No.

Careful, cooperative policing gives the clearest signal of all: you can think what you want, but we’re civilized, and we insist you act that way as well. Non-civilized actions will result in a firm, but civilized response. Terrorism is beyond the pale, and we’ll only listen to you if you stop it. But then we’ll have to start listening . . .