Desiring Machine

A recent report from the NY Times alleges that Zarqawi was training foreign terrorists in Iraq to carry out a global mission of terror. A couple of key quotes:

Counterterrorism officials in the United States said that they, too, had seen a flow of terrorists into Iraq from other countries, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, seeking training under Mr. Zarqawi and his associates.

And according to the Europeans:

Authorities across Europe have identified dozens of young militant Muslim men who have either left Europe to fight in Iraq or have been stopped while planning to do so. American forces in Iraq have said at least three French nationals are among the dozens of foreign fighters they have captured there.

The whole gist of this narrative is to present Zarqawi as an international matermind and ring leader that rivals Bin Laden and has been instrumental in extending the global war on terrorism. But this narrative just doesn’t seem to comport with the reality of daily life in the United States and Europe. The Zarqawi story works to justify the rationale for being in Iraq, we are fighting terrorists, we are keeping them there not here, and Zarqawi is just further evidence that the insurgency is fueled and maintained by foreign jihadists bent on the over throw of American forces.

I will not deny that there is an element of that in Iraq but I it strikes me that the heart of the insurgency is nationalist and sectarian in nature. And this is a problem that the administration neither anticipated nor completely understands how to address. How do you fight a war where the local citizens are your enemy under the cover of everyday life? Sure given enough boots on the ground we could kick in every single door in the nation and search for explosives and weapons, but in the process we are much more likely to inflame and incite more resentment and hostility against our troops. This is a tooth and nail fight on the ground and Zarqawi is relatively meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

Back to the so called global war on terrorism. The administration would love the public to believe that the streets are crawling with terrorists and that the war in Iraq and the death of Zarqawi is somehow thwarting the terrorists’ plans. But to me this doesn’t make much sense. In a certain sense the terrorist threat is way over blown. If the so called “terrorist camps” are so successful why have we not seen more suicide bombings in Europe or the U.S.? Perhaps there are not as many jihadists out there. Perhaps the few out there, become overwhelmed by the libertine and relatively open culture and wealth we enjoy. Living in a flop house in New York City as bad as it may seem is nothing like living in a routinely terrorized Palestinian village. The lack of bulldozers, angry community, bitter poverty and over reaching Israeli militants does something to your motivation. But more than this, terrorist operations strike me as exceedingly easy to carry out if your real goal is to terrorize a population. How hard would it be for a group of 20 guys to carry out a coordinated sniper campaign in several U.S. cities similar to the D.C. sniper case? That kind of action could do a lot to a public but yet we don’t see anything like that in our country or in Europe either, much less desperate suicide bombers. If there are Jihadists out there then their goals seem much more foolishly bent on glory. Many must hold romantic and grand ambitions of carrying out tactics on a grand scale. The assassination of leaders, the collapsing of buildings or the defense of a sacred holy land. The other reality is that small cells of terrorism are really not that effective. In this sense perhaps the president has done something to combat the efforts of terrorists. I think the law enforcement efforts and the freezing of financial assets are generally useful tactics to regulate and control small groups of people who have designs of over throwing the state or terrorize the population. Small disconnected groups of terrorists are not really capable of doing much damage, especially if they have limited access to financial resources or coordinated communications and explosives. And this has always been the reality in America. Small groups have not been that effective, even home grown terrorists. Sure there is the occasional crackpot who has means, opportunity and will (McVeigh for example), but by and large the threat of terror has not been that significant to the majority of citizens. You are probably more likely to die in a car accident.

But why all the grand triumphalism around Zarqawi’s death? There are established methods of containing and combating terrorist organizations but a massive war effort doesn’t seem to be the correct approach. I heard it once described that Bin Laden’s real intention would be to draw America into a long intractable and economically unsustainable war effort, similar to what the Russians faced in Afghanistan in the 70’s and 80’s, albeit that was primarily CIA backed. This has come to pass and we are well past the threshhold of quagmire. But what purpose does Zarqawi really serve the administration? He serves as a symbol, but perhaps an empty one at that. His death is merely the last gasp of a struggling administration facing tough opposition politically and a growing resistance to the war it started. It is hoped that Zarqawi could become a symbol of success in Iraq but really the public is smarter than that and already there are lots of questions with no clear answers. It is the administration that has killed over 2500 of our young men and women in uniform and this number is quickly approaching the 2700 dead in the WTC towers. The administration is at a desperate cross roads and it knows that its time is coming to an end. The whole Zarqawi affair is just a desperate attempt to rally support for a failed war effort for which the administration will be held to account. I am optimistic and I know that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are on a path of victory and will see the end to our president’s folly in Iraq.

I will leave you with this inspirational hymn from Dylan, just hum it to yourself as you go to work or walk down the street:

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
I shall walk.

The trail is dusty
And my road it might be rough,
But the better roads are waiting
And boys it ain’t far off.

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
We shall walk.

I walked down by the river,
I turned my head up high.
I saw that silver linin’
That was hangin’ in the sky.

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
We shall walk.

The evenin’ dusk was rollin’,
I was walking down the track.
There was a one-way wind a-blowin’
And it was blowin’ at my back.

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
We shall walk.

The gravel road is bumpy,
It’s a hard road to ride,
But there’s a clearer road a-waitin’
With the cinders on the side.

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
We shall walk.

That evening train was rollin’,
The hummin’ of its wheels,
My eyes they saw a better day
As I looked across the fields.

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
We shall walk.

The trail is dusty,
The road it might be rough,
But the good road is a-waitin’
And boys it ain’t far off.

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
We shall walk.