War against what?

We are fighting thousands of implacable enemies, bent on our destruction.

Where are they?

These are terrorists capable of deploying a nuclear weapon if they acquire one, a vast, well-equipped army of suicidal Moslems who will kill us in our beds if we let up our security for an instant.

Where are they hiding?

Were they destroyed by our forces in Afghanistan? No. Most of the people we killed in Afghanistan were Taliban or bystanders. There were very few militants, even though Afghanistan had been swarming in them for many years in the 80s and 90s. The training camps that had been set up there were not particularly impressive or well equipped. They would not match even one American army camp back home in the States.

How about the caves? The superbly well-equipped hideouts. Perhaps they were in there? Well, there were no sophisticated caves, just holes in the ground.

Maybe the terrorists are all in Iraq? Maybe. But most of the people we are fighting in Iraq are demonstrably Iraqis. There are relatively few outsiders. They are not particularly well equipped. They have small arms but they are short on missiles. When they fought the Russians, they had Stingers. The Americans gave them Stingers. Now they are fighting the Americans, Stingers are in much shorter supply.

Why are they not striking at us? Are they trying and our forces are thwarting them? I don't think so. Our leaders say they cannot divulge operations because it would endanger operatives, blah de blah. But of course it would endanger nothing to say that they thwarted a plot to sail a ship into the port of London and blow up the docks or whatever. But they don't. They know that the press would uncover a lie too easily. To conjure up demons you need secrecy.

The group connected with bin Laden was never very active. Al Qaida is only supposed to have made an attempt on the WTC a decade ago, bombed the Cole and two embassies and had one thwarted attempt at blowing up airliners, before September 11. Since then there is Madrid and Bali, the latter by affiliates. For an army bent on world terror, it's not up to much. The Palestinians, who are not particularly numerous, manage a suicide bombing a week when they're in the mood. We don't face a wave of suicide bombings in our cities. Why not? Explosives are easy to acquire and easier to make. Al Qaeda's operatives are not supposed to have difficulty travelling.

Terror is a problem. There are groups who kill civilians, sometimes for almost unfathomable reasons. Some have contact with each other. This was true in the seventies, but the neocons had the Russkies as their bogeymen then. (Strangely the Russians have become entirely unthreatening, even though they are the same guys. Well, unthreatening to us -- the shocking story of Russia is for another day and, by fuck, is it a story! -- if you are interested in knowing how Putin manufactured the war in Chechnya and assured his re-election by having his own civilians murdered, google "Ryazan FSB terrorists Chechnya" or similar. Remind yourself as you do that Americans and Russians are all human beings, not of a different kind.)

We are fighting thousands of implacable enemies, bent on our destruction. But don't ask for proof. Don't ask where or who they are. Don't ask what they are doing. Or, who knows, you may find yourself one of them, incarcerated without trial, your punishment justified by the war against the bogeyman.

posted by Dr Zen @ 10:58 am