Thursday, July 13, 2006

Thoughts on the GWOT

tee bee

I've posted a piece I've been working on for several weeks:Pro GWOT Since December 21, 1988.

It's become increasingly important in terms of support and strategy for the war that we acknowledge the locus as well as the broader roots of what we are up against.

It's a long piece, so I'll only post excerpts.

I've posted a piece I've been working on for several weeks:Pro GWOT Since December 21, 1988.It's become increasingly important in terms of support and strategy for the war that we acknowledge the locus as well as the broader roots of what we are up against.It's a long piece, so I'll only post excerpts.

...

I threatened back then to cull my unflinching support for the war from any perceived Bush loyalty in another post.

Here it is - the day the Global War on Terror began.

In 1988, terrorists took down a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie, Scotland (1, 2, 3, 4), killing 270 people, including eleven citizens of Lockerbie. A bomb detonated in the forward hold, causing the plane to dump passengers and debris over the 81 mile trail of the crash.

The world held its breath as the suspected terrorists were hunted; no one doubted that it was again the work of terrorists demanding either money for their cause or for the release of their fellow terrorists.
...

Regardless of whether you believe the terrorists behind the Lockerbie massacre were Libyan or Syrian, the fact remains that before Lockerbie went down, virtually every terrorist attack had taken place on soil or the air route of a sympathetic nation or in distant points where we had military presence.

Lockerbie signaled a sea change: These hyperactive and ideologically unified terrorists were opposed to the idea and ideals of the West - not simply any inroads or presence in their homelands by Westerners - and were now determined bring to the battle to our doorstep with as violent and costly results as possible.


CP @ BBA.

3 Comments:

At 3:39 PM, Blogger Cassandra said...

I have been wanting to read this tee bee - I am saving it for Saturday when I have time to savor it :) didn't want you to think I was ignoring you! That's why no comment so far. I always find your take interesting, and wanted to give it the attention it deserved.

 
At 7:21 PM, Blogger Jane Bellwether said...

Thanks. I'm not sure it is asking for a response so much as prompting people to consider where their base lies in determining support for this war. Without that, how can anyone determine that the war has accomplished some or all of its objectives?

Gulf I was satisfying in its swift ass-kicking, but failed ultimately because it couldn't achieve its objective: contain Saddam. Without looking at what the problem with facing Saddam is and was, you have flimsy basis for war. We wanted to stop him from being an agressor in the region and potentially elsewhere, but thought the lesson only had to be one of the consequences when he did cross boundaries.

And now we're paying for it in spades, and people reasonably question targeting Saddam - they realize the problem is bigger, but how much further than that has their reasoning taken them?

 
At 4:23 AM, Blogger Cassandra said...

Well actually I did read it over the weekend with respect to something I've been thinking about for a long time, but I don't write complicated things on the weekend b/c that's family time.

I have 3 or 4 sort of omnibus posts on the war kicking around in the back of my head. This touches on one of the themes. I broke out my dogeared copy of foreign affairs during lunch yesterday and re-read an article I'd perused earlier that would, I think, dovetail nicely with your post.

I wish I had more time :) I see interesting stuff but never seem to have time to pursue it.

 

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