THE LONDON BOMBINGS: the options

Here's the very random course of recent history that got us here: 1) we stupidly supported and continue to suppport Israeli aggression against the Muslim world, instead of a fair peace at internationally recognized borders, 2) Jimmy Carter stupidly supported and caused a Muslim fundamentalist revolution in Iran, 3) After the Meir Kahani assassination, the first World Trade Center bombing and many other terrorist attacks the NYPD and the Federal gov't promptly went to sleep instead of following the obvious criminal leads to 9/11, 4) when Saddam signaled that he was going to invade Kuwait the Bush 1 administration stupidly signaled back that it was of no interest to them, 5) after Gulf 1, during which we saved the world's oil supply, the Bush Administration felt sorry for the Kurds and the Shea and so protected them against Saddam with no fly zones over their territory thus laying the grounds for Gulf 2 which was finally triggered by 9/11, 7) all Western intelligence agencies stupidly determined that Saddam had WMD, Saddam stupidly played cat and mouse with UN inspectors acting exactly like he had WMD, and Bush stupidly failed to verify the intelligence about WMD, 8) Bush 2 attacked Iraq in part because polls showed that if the upcoming election was about terrorism he would win but that if it was just about the economy he would lose, and in part because it was reasonable in the wake of 9/11 to attacked our enemies before they attacked us again, 9) Tony Blair, out of loyalty to a long-standing ally who saved his country from complete Nazi annihilation, supported us, against the wishes of his countrymen. The Muslims bombed London yesterday in retaliation, killing 37 people and terrorizing millions.

But what do we do now given the random series of events that got us here? We have to ignore the history, as bizarre as it is, and move on. The tendency is to be really mad, but heck, it was only 37 deaths which is probably not enough to provoke anyone to do very much, but, on the other hand, the writing is on the wall more clearly than ever for all to see. No matter how much money we spend we cannot defend each and every target against terrorism. Anyone can get on a train or bus anywhere and blow it up, or, even easier, buy an automatic weapon in our gun drenched culture, go to Times Square at rush hour, and kill hundreds.

So what do we do other than plod along living under a reign of terror hoping it is our neighbors who get killed rather than us? After all, those who wish to do nothing are really saying, "I pray the next victim is my neighbor rather than me or my family." It's a cold calculus but that is what the terrorists have made of us. We are a business oriented culture with a Darwinian perspective and so perhaps just as some must lose in the market place we are comfortable knowing that some must lose in this war too, at least until enough of us feel threatened enough of the time.

But what could we do anyway? We could keep playing the capitalist odds hoping it is our neighbors who get killed next or, very simply, we could demand that the enemy surrender. We could simply announce to the Muslim world ( 52% of Muslims in London were not willing to condemn the 9/11 bombings and no Imam (except one) has issued a fatwa against OBL for 9/11) that their support for OBL and his ideology has earned them the following ultimatum: change your ways and turn over OBL in one month or there will be a crater one mile wide round outside of Medina; in another month, if he has not been turned over, there will be another crater inside Medina with Gumbad-e-Khizra being precisely at the center of it. If at that point you still feel divinely inspired to follow OBL toward some 15th Century mad dog Caliphate we will eliminate Mecca one terrorizing month or so later, at which point you can pray 5 times a day in the direction of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border where your great savior OBL is living like a diseased and slimy rat in a dark dank hole.

It is so odd isn't it, they know they can pick us off a few at a time and we will be too civilized to crush them in an instant, or is it that they know they can pick a few of us off at a time and we will be too selfish, calculating, and materialistic to risk boldly crushing them? Regardless of what they know about us though this war may eventually make us decide what we know about ourselves before we decide which of our options we wish to exercise.

Ted Baiamonte
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