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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JD who wrote (48410)	4/29/2005 3:28:07 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

A shorter version for the faithful, properly cut an edited by the concerned, but still good enough to make waves, does represent how much my country has changed since 911- if one is courageous enough to make the cry people are ready to publish, it is in these lands like Iran, Arab lands and Pakistan where this message of reality was lost and where people like me are being heard atleast! -VIEW: A post-9/11 strategy —Iqbal Latif How were they to wage a war against a hidden enemy living within a free society as an undeclared combatant hell bent on destroying the very fabric of the society that sustained him? How were they to dissuade the terrorists, opposing everything an open society stands for, while upholding the basic tenets of democracy and civilised way of life? It is generally argued that the post-9/11 US strategy was fatally flawed as it abandoned the traditional wisdom — authored by the grandees of old liberal Europe — of a measured response to terrorist attacks. The universally accepted response to terrorism featured a series of tactical attacks on terrorist assets, diplomacy and appeasement. As a consequence of the new policy, some say, an iron curtain has descended between the West and Islam. Even Salman Rushdie, the man who caused ripples with his Satanic Verses, has the cheek to suggest that 9/11 strategies have expanded the distance between nations of Islam and the West. Such criticism represents an oversimplification. For the task before the architects of the war on terror was not easy by any stretch of the imagination: How were they to wage a war against a hidden enemy living within a free society as an undeclared combatant hell bent on destroying the very fabric of the society that sustained him? How were they to dissuade the terrorists, opposing everything an open society stands for, while upholding the basic tenets of democracy and civilised way of life? The likes of Bin Laden believe in hegemony of the faithful over the infidel and a perpetual struggle until this goal is achieved. On the other hand, the West’s response to terrorist attacks, from Munich and Beirut to the USS Cole, was conventional and stereotyped. Uncivilised behaviour was answered with an appeasing civility. It was the abandoning of this self-imposed restraint that made Bush such a hated man. Refusing to be held hostage to this liberal civility, he based the new strategy on: “Let them hate me as long as they fear me.” Before we chastise the policymakers in Washington, who had to deal with an unprecedented catastrophe in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, we must realise how technology and openness helped determined terrorists mount successful attacks. The primary US objective after 9/11 was to protect the country from further attacks. This has been accomplished. Terrorist attacks have also declined worldwide and once-enemy states are seen cooperating against terrorism. As for political Islam, it has never remained calm as a minority. Zawahiris and Bin Ladens of the world will not rest until they see everybody bow before the pulpit. For them the struggle for dominance has to continue. Although they are a minority within the faithful — seen as those capable of bringing about the impossible — they attract a romantic following. Their infatuation with the dreams of Poitiers and Vienna does not let the ‘moderates’ in the nation of Islam denounce them wholeheartedly. Since the folklore of conquest has never really died despite the loss of leadership in arts and sciences, the rage of impotence has multiplied. The misplaced ideas of conquest and dominance win the modern day extremists a lot of sympathisers. This is the root cause of the ambivalence of the ‘moderates’. It is all in the mindset. And a change in mindset is possible only when reality of coexistence dawns on the rank and file of the faithful. Iqbal Latif is an international businessman dailytimes.com.pk