The world is changed forever

Tuesday, April 15, 2003 - by Peter Golden

War! To say it the cheeks are compressed, the lips are pursed, the mouth opens and the tongue drops to the bottom of the mouth. Then the lungs drive a powerful column of air up out of the chest, sounding a low, resonant cry across the vocal cords.

Said once it is a challenge and an exclamation point. Repeat it and a galloping, stamping chant emerges filled with portents of primitive savagery, blood lust and horror. Yet like a long-lost lover we rush to embrace it, keen in our passion, sure in our cause. War, however, is no first date followed by a chaste goodnight kiss on the front porch. It is the most abusive of relationships, often followed, oddly enough, by reconciliation and a renewal of affection.

The destruction of the World Trade Center and the Republican doctrine of pre-emptive military/political policy have combined to create a new variation on reality TV, live and on-camera 24-hours a day. The action is at once riveting and repellant. Romance is compact, brief and passionate; war is drawn out, sprawling and wearingly dull.

But this is not about convenient symbols or facile comparisons. 9/11 was a coordinated assault on America, the West and a future built on democracy and ever-increasing global trade.

In its effect it was remarkably effective. Financially and politically it has been devastating. The American economy and that of much of the world are in free fall and historic relationships between major powers have fractured.

One can imagine that Mr. bin Laden in his mad genius foresaw all this turmoil as he and his confederates worked so earnestly to wound America. Like any good guerrilla he used his enemy's resources to both destroy his target and foment internal dissent. Even more he knew our response, in whatever form it might take, would excite a firestorm of anger in the Muslim world.

Terror, he came to understand, as legions of American policy analysts also understood, would become the new threat to global peace, stability and prosperity. In the year and a half after 9/11 we have seen our economy collapse and our diplomacy fail. And now that we are out in the deserts of Iraq, we are suddenly involved in a war that promises to be neither brief nor unambiguous in its outcome.

In all other respects, however, bin Laden was utterly wrong. And while Americans may struggle among themselves to justify the logic of an Iraqi incursion, the notion of a strategic response to terrorism remains unscathed.

For 9/11 was no isolated event. Nor will it be the last attack on our homeland. No nation, no people can accommodate such attacks for long and sustain its way of life. Thus a strategic response is our only option.

Iraq will not go down easily, as our military planners saw clearly in the first Gulf War when they chose not to take the road to Baghdad. Iraq may not be the "right" target, if indeed there is any such thing, in our efforts to check the course of terror. Perhaps North Korea more fully merits our attention, or Iran.

Respond, however, we must, and the one ground denied forever to Mr. bin Laden, the North Koreans and anyone else who dares to challenge democracy and global freedom is strategic. For it is one thing to hijack a plane, another altogether to build one.

Certainly one can hijack a nation, a region and even a world religion. Despots, warlords and religious fanatics litter the pages of history. But one cannot roll back the separation of church and state, of free speech, equal rights and due process. Nor can one stand in the way of entrepreneurial capitalism, technology and scientific inquiry, unless one wants to confront the combined forces of the United States and its allies.

For the foreseeable future, it is going to be hard to be an American, but not so hard as to be a terrorist or supporter of a rogue state. Islamists may whip the masses into a frenzy of anti-Americanism. Pan-Arabists may do the same. It will come to nothing.

Americans may argue and demonstrate over this war and more to come. But the strategic scenario remains unchanged: democratize; develop new technologies; undertake economic transformation; reach out to new partners, build inclusiveness.

Some day Wall Street, Detroit and Houston will get over the internal combustion engine and oil. The day cannot come too soon when we reconcile our passion for economic growth with the needs of the environment. Some day we will be able to vacation abroad again without worry, to "See the pyramids along the Nile," and ". . . love Paris every moment, every moment of the year . . ."

For now, however, it is blood and sand, anxious dads and the unbearable cries of bereaved mothers when for only a few but all too many the dreaded knock comes at the door. Our will as a nation is being tested. It has before and it shall again. The world is changed forever, but to the regret of our adversaries, it is we who are changing it.

 
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