Fanaticism is at the basis of the viewpoint expressed in The End of Evil. Not the hysterical, commies-are-under-every-bed variety. And not the stodgy, John Birch Society commies-have-been-under-every-bed-for-the-past-80-years kind. It's more like the grim fanaticism of authoritarian rulers who declare what the citizens are required to believe and then expect them to repeat it.
The basis of the Frum/Perle fanaticism appears to be the notion that a deadly movement motivated by a coherent ideology is out to destroy the United States. This evil is viewed as a vague, hostile force that conflates threats as diverse as Syrian Baathist secular Arab nationalism, the Shiite partial theocracy in Iran and al-Qaeda militant Islamic extremism with more familiar enemies of the last century:
Generations of extremist leaders in the Middle East - fascists, communists, pan-Arabists, now Islamists - have each in their turn made a bid to lead a unified East against the enemy West. Bin Laden follows where the [Nazi-sympathizing] grand mufti of Jerusalem [Haj-Amin al-Husseini], Gamal Abdel Nasser, Muammar al-Qaddafi, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Saddam Hussein have preceded him. Bin Laden offers a new answer, but it is an answer to the same question. (p. 59)
The fundamental problem in the policy orientation they recommend is one that is also at the core of the Bush Doctrine as so far implemented (primarily in the Iraq War). That is the assumption that the terrorism which threatens the United States is a function of state sponsorship.
To illustrate this point, it is useful to quote General Wesley Clark from his most recent book, Winning Modern Wars (2003). He describes how, during the Cold War:
U.S. perceptions were chiefly shaped by our Cold War rivalry witht he Soviet Union and our strategic alignments in the Middle East, especially with Israel. Like Israelis, Americans looked first for state sponsors [of terrorism], because if we could deprive terrorists of bases, financing, and arms - all provided by states - we could drive them out of business, even if we couldn't penetrate their organizations or identify all their members. (Clark, p. 107)
No comments:
Post a Comment