On The Brink?
"There is no such thing as 'international terrorism'.
To declare war on 'international terrorism' is nonsense. Politicians who do so are either fools or cynics, and probably both." Uri Avnery in his weekly column in Gush Shalom, this week.
Uri Avnery, now in his nineties, has been around a while. He's seen a lot, including WWII, the rise of the modern state of Israel - he fought against the British pre-Independence, and all the fighting and warring up until the present day. He still has all his marbles and has an incisive mind. Moreover he is not blinded by being Israeli, as some modern Israelis appear to be. He can still appreciate the point of view of the 'enemy', in too many cases Palestinian boys and teenagers!
"Terrorism is a method of operation. It is often used by oppressed peoples, including the French Resistance to the Nazis in WW II. We would laugh at anyone who declared war on 'international resistance'.
"Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian military thinker, famously said that 'war is the continuation of politics by other means'. If he had lived with us today, he might have said: 'Terrorism is a continuation of policy by other means.'
"Terrorism means, literally, to frighten the victims into surrendering to the will of the terrorist."
Which is what has been happening over the past week in Belgium. Some of the terrorists who attacked Paris the other Friday had been based in Belgium. Suddenly Brussels was in lock down mode, for the best part of a week. Places in Brussels were being guarded by armed police and the Belgian army - masked by scarves pulled up over the bottom half of their faces (hey, who's looking like 'terrorists' now?) Large assemblies of people were banned. Come Monday schools were closed throughout Brussels and soldiers searched through places various of the Paris bombers had been or were suspected to have been.
I'm not sure that, even now, Brussels is returning to 'normal' - whatever that is. Probably something to do with not having masked, armed soldiers and police everywhere!
Meanwhile David Cameron continues to argue for 'bombing IS in Syria' and various politicians, being interviewed, express their ideas that he may well have a point. Hah! So far only Jeremy Corbyn is saying a straight 'no!' to the bombing and that's because he has strongly held pacifist views. Good. For. Him.
What all the politicians thus interviewed, or the parts of the interviews so far broadcast, seem to have missed is that by bombing Syria as well as Iraq they will be playing right into the hands of IS, the terrorists. They (the IS terrorists) seem to be hell bent on fomenting a real, all out war between themselves and the (Christian) West, so that they can say to the rest of the Muslim world,
"Look, the Christians/the West are against us. They make war against us as in the days of the Crusades. We must fight back to defend ourselves and Islam."
Or as Avnery puts it:-
"They (various world leaders, particularly European) do not understand the challenge. They react to imagined threats and ignore the real ones. They do not know what to do. So they do what comes naturally: make speeches, convene meetings and bomb somebody (no matter who and what for).
"Not understanding the malady, their remedy is worse than the disease itself. Bombing causes destruction, destruction creates new enemies who thirst for revenge. It is a direct collaboration with the terrorists. (Italics and bold mine)
"It was a sad spectacle to see all these world leaders, the commanders of powerful nations, running around like mice in a maze, meeting, speechifying, uttering nonsensical statements, totally unable to deal with the crisis."
Equally worrying is the ongoing involvement of Russia. They say that they are bombing IS targets in Syria. Others on the ground claim that they are bombing them, and that they are not IS. Then a Russian jet was shot down by Turkmen fighters in Turkey because it spent all of 17 seconds in Turkish airspace. One of the pilots survived and is heading back to Russia the long way, the other was killed.
So President Putin is now acting Macho (as if he'd do anything else) towards Turkey - beefing up the mutual border. Russians are refusing to holiday in Turkey. Western leaders, remembering the latter half of the twentieth century, are beginning to wonder whether they were right in asking Russia to get involved in the first place.
All that's before you also realise that various Kurdish groups are also involved in the fighting against IS in Syria and Iraq. Turkey has always looked with diffidence (at the very least) at Kurdish fighters. The Kurds, after all, want their own homeland in the area - a homeland which would involve uniting bits of Turkey, Syria and various other contiguous contries. A homeland, therefore, which only the Kurds want as no other countries in the area are willing to give up bits of their territories and have thus been fighting Kurdish rebels on and off over many years.
And so it continues. Those of us who remember our history remember the various times when different distant conflicts suddenly escalated into international war over what had seemed minor events originally. We remember the times when various historical 'incidents' suddenly blew up into full scale war. And if we have any sense, we fear that far more than we fear any terrorist act or group, be it IS or anyone.
As 'those who do not remember their history are condemned to repeat it' let us hope that our leaders also remember history.
So, Dear David Cameron and other World Leaders, think carefully and do not lead us further into war. Please. There are other, and perhaps better, certainly more successful, ways of defeating terrorist groups than allowing their threats to paralyse us (Brussels this past week) or declaring war on an idea!
Y'all have a good, and thoughtful, day now!
To declare war on 'international terrorism' is nonsense. Politicians who do so are either fools or cynics, and probably both." Uri Avnery in his weekly column in Gush Shalom, this week.
Uri Avnery, now in his nineties, has been around a while. He's seen a lot, including WWII, the rise of the modern state of Israel - he fought against the British pre-Independence, and all the fighting and warring up until the present day. He still has all his marbles and has an incisive mind. Moreover he is not blinded by being Israeli, as some modern Israelis appear to be. He can still appreciate the point of view of the 'enemy', in too many cases Palestinian boys and teenagers!
"Terrorism is a method of operation. It is often used by oppressed peoples, including the French Resistance to the Nazis in WW II. We would laugh at anyone who declared war on 'international resistance'.
"Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian military thinker, famously said that 'war is the continuation of politics by other means'. If he had lived with us today, he might have said: 'Terrorism is a continuation of policy by other means.'
"Terrorism means, literally, to frighten the victims into surrendering to the will of the terrorist."
Which is what has been happening over the past week in Belgium. Some of the terrorists who attacked Paris the other Friday had been based in Belgium. Suddenly Brussels was in lock down mode, for the best part of a week. Places in Brussels were being guarded by armed police and the Belgian army - masked by scarves pulled up over the bottom half of their faces (hey, who's looking like 'terrorists' now?) Large assemblies of people were banned. Come Monday schools were closed throughout Brussels and soldiers searched through places various of the Paris bombers had been or were suspected to have been.
I'm not sure that, even now, Brussels is returning to 'normal' - whatever that is. Probably something to do with not having masked, armed soldiers and police everywhere!
Meanwhile David Cameron continues to argue for 'bombing IS in Syria' and various politicians, being interviewed, express their ideas that he may well have a point. Hah! So far only Jeremy Corbyn is saying a straight 'no!' to the bombing and that's because he has strongly held pacifist views. Good. For. Him.
What all the politicians thus interviewed, or the parts of the interviews so far broadcast, seem to have missed is that by bombing Syria as well as Iraq they will be playing right into the hands of IS, the terrorists. They (the IS terrorists) seem to be hell bent on fomenting a real, all out war between themselves and the (Christian) West, so that they can say to the rest of the Muslim world,
"Look, the Christians/the West are against us. They make war against us as in the days of the Crusades. We must fight back to defend ourselves and Islam."
Or as Avnery puts it:-
"They (various world leaders, particularly European) do not understand the challenge. They react to imagined threats and ignore the real ones. They do not know what to do. So they do what comes naturally: make speeches, convene meetings and bomb somebody (no matter who and what for).
"Not understanding the malady, their remedy is worse than the disease itself. Bombing causes destruction, destruction creates new enemies who thirst for revenge. It is a direct collaboration with the terrorists. (Italics and bold mine)
"It was a sad spectacle to see all these world leaders, the commanders of powerful nations, running around like mice in a maze, meeting, speechifying, uttering nonsensical statements, totally unable to deal with the crisis."
Equally worrying is the ongoing involvement of Russia. They say that they are bombing IS targets in Syria. Others on the ground claim that they are bombing them, and that they are not IS. Then a Russian jet was shot down by Turkmen fighters in Turkey because it spent all of 17 seconds in Turkish airspace. One of the pilots survived and is heading back to Russia the long way, the other was killed.
So President Putin is now acting Macho (as if he'd do anything else) towards Turkey - beefing up the mutual border. Russians are refusing to holiday in Turkey. Western leaders, remembering the latter half of the twentieth century, are beginning to wonder whether they were right in asking Russia to get involved in the first place.
All that's before you also realise that various Kurdish groups are also involved in the fighting against IS in Syria and Iraq. Turkey has always looked with diffidence (at the very least) at Kurdish fighters. The Kurds, after all, want their own homeland in the area - a homeland which would involve uniting bits of Turkey, Syria and various other contiguous contries. A homeland, therefore, which only the Kurds want as no other countries in the area are willing to give up bits of their territories and have thus been fighting Kurdish rebels on and off over many years.
And so it continues. Those of us who remember our history remember the various times when different distant conflicts suddenly escalated into international war over what had seemed minor events originally. We remember the times when various historical 'incidents' suddenly blew up into full scale war. And if we have any sense, we fear that far more than we fear any terrorist act or group, be it IS or anyone.
As 'those who do not remember their history are condemned to repeat it' let us hope that our leaders also remember history.
So, Dear David Cameron and other World Leaders, think carefully and do not lead us further into war. Please. There are other, and perhaps better, certainly more successful, ways of defeating terrorist groups than allowing their threats to paralyse us (Brussels this past week) or declaring war on an idea!
Y'all have a good, and thoughtful, day now!