RANGER AGAINST WAR: Milk and Honey <

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Milk and Honey


You can go your own way
Go your own way

You can call it

Another lonely day

--
Go Your Own Way, Fleetwood Mac

If I had a mind to

I wouldn't want to think like you

And if I had time to

I wouldn't want to talk to you

--I
Wouldn't Want to Be Like You
Alan Parsons Project


In time the Rockies may tumble,

Gibralter may crumble,

They're only made of clay,

But our love is here to stay

--Our Love is Here to Stay
, George Gershwin

_______________

The press and the popular mind lump all terrorism into the same vat. Recent events in Israel demonstrate a variant, as the terrorism the Israelis must address is distinct and different from the threat facing U.S. interests.

Size matters, as does philosophy. Terrorists differ in their intent and capabilities, their organizational structure and operational methods, whether overt or covert. A terrorist differs from those who merely use terror tactics.


Terrorist operational assets are too valuable to waste. They preserve their assets, only expending their disposables. Therefore, Hamas is not a classic terrorist organization because they have a large disposable base. Hamas has evolved beyond terrorism, though they have splinter groups that are purely terroristic. Otherwise, they are a group that uses terror tactics in their unconventional war with Israel.


There is a great deal of sympathy for Hamas, the group viewed as the underdog, but the underdog is not always in the right. In the case of the U.S. versus al-Qaeda, the latter is the underdog, but we do not extend much sympathy their way.


The Hamas threat is observable, has a large popular support and has crossed over into political and military legitimacy. They are not clandestine and have stated-goals: the establishment of a new state dominated by religious fervor and aimed at the destruction of Israel.

The Israelis can address this threat either militarily, politically or in tandem, but address it they must. The threat is within homemade rocket range. While it is doubtful that such attacks could ever destroy Israel,
the relentless pace of these attacks ruins life for all involved.

Terrorists do not necessarily gain anything tangible from their operations. Often their attacks are simply acts of frustration, much like the reaction of the Israeli military. Much as with al-Qaeda's 9-11 attack, a counterstrike is forced out of all proportion to the initiating event.
This cyclical dance of death escalates until the mindlessness becomes institutionalized on both sides of the equation. It is a merry-go-round that doesn't require tickets.

The press coverages continues the confusion of terms when they refer to Israel's 23-day offensive as both a
"war" and a "conflict". It was surely a conflict, but hardly a war. The Islamist government of Gaza vowed to acquire new rockets and other weapons, and though Eqypt and the West vowed to help keep them from this goal, how will they prevent it?

The
Chicago Tribune called it a "short ferocious war with no winner," but it was not a war. It was a tactical counterstrike. That Hamas did not "lose" is a victory for them. Further, "Hamas showed again that it would eagerly sacrifice its people's lives and security in the name of its terrorist goals." However, this same observation can be made concerning legal state power.

Doesn't the U.S. sacrifice the lives of our own soldiers to bulwark security for Iraq and Afghanistan? Does the U.S. military not kill civilians in those countries to secure U.S. goals in theatre?


This is modernity. Perhaps Hobbes was right -- it is a battle of all against all. Computer hackers will always breech the best defenses of your privacy.
The New York Times reported this week that food will always be adulterated with rot, mildew and maggots (The Maggots in Your Mushrooms.) Terrorists are here to stay (unless our agenda is to kill every last one of them, which is clearly an impossibility due to rising generations.)

The U.S. goes romping and stomping over two countries when they get singed by their anger, but would censure other countries for doing the same. Hypocrites. The Limbaughians have a saying: "We can be right 99% of the time; they only have to be right once." That is right, and that, sadly, is a risk one must take in order to live in liberty and freedom.


The best one can do is ramp up their protective posture through better intelligence gathering, analysis and policing. If we believe all these words about freedom and democracy, then we must abide by the rights of the newly freed Iraqis and Afghanis to be other than we might like.

They may have friends we may disprove of. They are adults, now freed from the yoke of the dictator that kept their tenuous societal balance.

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8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What is most incredible is the view dominant in the US at the present time that we can somehow negotiate a peace settlement there without negotiating with Hamas. Absurd! We want to say we won't negotiate because we don't want to give them legitimacy. Nonsense, they don't need legitimacy. They have guns. You have to negotiate with the guys with the guns. That is reality. So what if they don't recognize Israel? Israel negotiated with the PLO for years before they agreed to give up their demand for Israel's destruction. Recognizing Israel must certainly be a condition of the negotiations. But to make it a PRE-condition for negotiations is a complete non-starter.

Monday, February 16, 2009 at 12:51:00 AM GMT-5  
Blogger The Minstrel Boy said...

the culture of war

where martin van creveld dissects the delusion that war can be a quick fix, or even a viable tool of statecraft.

instead it tends to permeate and fossilize a society. rather than promoting art, science and innovation it stifles all of them.

think sparta, think imperial rome, think germany, think us.

well worth the read.

Monday, February 16, 2009 at 11:41:00 AM GMT-5  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.juancole.com/

Here's more on this sad subject with donate button for the region.
jo6pac

Monday, February 16, 2009 at 4:00:00 PM GMT-5  
Blogger Lisa said...

Thank you, MB -- excellent reading suggestion.

Monday, February 16, 2009 at 6:51:00 PM GMT-5  
Blogger Ael said...

I'm not sure that the word "terrorist" contains useful semantics. Hamas, Haganah, IRA, LTTE, Al Queda, the Apache, the early continental army and the spanish guerillas all share many similar traits.

We only choose to label some of these organizations "terrorists".

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 2:59:00 PM GMT-5  
Blogger rangeragainstwar said...

AEL,
An organisation can use terror tactics and not be a Terror entity.The Mafia would be a good example.
The US military uses terror tactics both past and present. We coined the term TERROR BOMBING in WW2. A guided missile fired from a drone is Terrorism to innocent civilians killed in the blast.But as always -fuck em if they can't take a joke.
jim

Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 10:41:00 AM GMT-5  
Blogger Ael said...

I'm sorry.

I still see no useful reason to use words/phrases like "terrorist" or "terror entity".

Actually, let me rephrase that, I see no useful non-propaganda purpose for using those words.

Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 2:03:00 PM GMT-5  
Blogger Lisa said...

AEL,

The designation "terrorist" vs. those who simply use terrorism as a tactic to further an agenda can help determine a political approach and lead to understanding of what the actors desire.

For terrorists who are nihilistic in nature, not much can be done short of arrest and trial. In the case of state-aligned actors who are fronting and agenda, a political conciliation can be attempted.

There are terrorists and there are those who employ terror tactics to further an agenda. The two groups are not equal (though how one categorizes the players may be be a function of political bias/affiliation.)

For ex., if one is pro-Hamas, Hamas is a freedom-fighting bunch of saviors; if you're trying to live your life in Israel, they are a bunch of thugs out to decimate your population.

Friday, February 20, 2009 at 11:39:00 AM GMT-5  

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