The Unknown Enemy
The Unknown Enemy
ONLY THE BEGINNING Each day since September 11th is another day of anonymity. No terrorist or political group has claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Twin Towers, The Pentagon, and wherever the thwarted Pennsylvania crash was intended. Easy and comforting though it may be to assign blame to bin Laden and his group, there is no rock solid proof. Our system of justice asks that there be proof, leaving no reasonable doubt in order to convict the accused. All we have now is doubt, hearsay, conjecture, and an easy target in The Taliban and renowned anti-American bad-guy Osama bin Laden. Had the investigation not uncovered Timothy McVeigh and his zealous band of so-called patriots, the obvious and comfortable culprit would have been some middle-eastern, most-likely Arabic, Islamic, proudly anti-American cell. How simple it is to assign blame to the apparent enemy, how deeply comforting it is to erase the doubt and disparage a new common enemy. We name and proclaim the guilty party. It assuages the fears of a nation; it inspires feelings of unity and strengthens something referred to as ìresolve. Or, to put it another way: What shallow bullshit is so easily swallowed to put aside concern and relax with a neatly wrapped sense of closure regarding the perpetrator, the enemy. The truth is a much harder pill to swallow The truth is that the name in the news, bin Laden, and his cronies in an organization known as Al Qaeda, rage on, calling for war against the enemies America and the Christians & The Jews. They couch their words behind a veil of Jihad and defense against this international uprising that threatens their way of life, their sacred beliefs. They position themselves as the oppressed, the attacked, the ones on the defensive. They call to their supporters to rally among and with them, to come to their aid against this campaign waged by the superpowers and messengers of Satan. Yet they never claim responsibility for the actions taken on September 11th. The attacks of that day were designed to make a statement just as they were designed to bring about death and destruction. The seats of power were hit: Washington and New York. What is next? Could it be Boston and Philadelphia, the seats of liberty? Are Chicago and Los Angeles, the next two great and important American cities of size and commerce and influence, on their hit list? Or is it the water supply, or other unconventional methods of warfare on the innocent? We do not know. Nor does there seem to be conclusive proof that the names being put to blame are, in fact, the actual perpetrators. While their sympathies certainly may be in alignment with whomever or whatever organization planned, backed, and executed these acts, there is no hard evidence, proof, cut-and-dried, black-and-white, laying blame on their doorstep. It makes the terrorist even more horrific to be anonymous and secretive. What is next, when is next, how will it be manifested? And will capturing bin Laden and his minions even begin to put an end to the maudlin possibilities of continued acts of terror in this new for of war? Our understanding of the hostility and fervor is minimal. To fly a plane into a building, to snuff one's own life out while taking the lives of innocents, and to feel that the reward for this is an eternally holy blessing -- this is beyond our ken. We know nothing of the zealotry and belief systems which attract the players and compel them to action. But wait, it gets worse: Even if bin Laden is not behind the attacks of September 11th, his group is reportedly capable of waging considerable nuclear catastrophes on limited areas of population. A report on this can be found here.
THEY BLAME IT ON THE JEWS When this first occurred I expressed concern that there would be those who would find a way to blame the Jews for the attacks. Oddly, though this is indeed the case, it comes from quarters other than expected. I had anticipated a far-flung militant radical right-wing reactionary (you know, the neo Nazis who pass them selves off as patriotic Americans seeking to cleanse the country of what they perceive as a ìbad elementî) response, blaming the Jews. And maybe, too, the Blacks, and Catholics, and all foreigners. After all, these are the groups they blame for everything, so why not add this to their laundry list of reasons for hatred? Turns out that it is a Middle-Eastern form of paranoia churning out this story! In today's New York Times a Pakistani cleric-cum-revolutionary, not a member of bin Laden's group, but by all means a member of a sympathetic group, assigned the blame on Israel. His is a common chorus: they claim that the Jews (read: Israel) conspired with Christian/Anti-Islam America to execute the attacks and make it appear as though it was a Moslem plan. A report from Afghanistan had a major cleric asking why no Jews had died in the World Trade Center attack. And believing this to be the case, no less! The problem gets complicated by virtue of the dissemination of misinformation. The rush on the other side to blame the Jews and the Great Satan US, and to believe all sorts of accusatory and incendiary rhetoric is as dangerous and foreboding as is the rush on this side to find a common enemy, a name and a face (and allied group) to blame. Common sense has escaped. Like Elvis, it appears to have left the building, died, vanished, or to have become the substance of legend. The hue and cry for retaliatory acts, for someoneís head, for a combative response, does bring a warm and fuzzy feeling of Rambo-like togetherness to some. It also helps a nation feel united and banded together in a common cause, a sense of needing and wanting to protect and preserve the life as we know it. Sad truth: Life As We Knew It is over. Terror attacks as reality, no longer just a hypothetical movie plot, changes our world. The existence of enemies of the state, of threats to our National Security, are now real and accomplished, no longer the subjects of action thriller books and the plots of rah-rah go-get-'em modern-times cowboy movies. Suddenly the intelligent nerds behind the scenes --rather than the James Bond/Rambo/Bruce Willis character types-- are the important players on the security front. Yes, it is those who studied and can speak Farsi and other difficult Middle Eastern languages who are recognized for their value and their potential contribution to the continued safety and peace we once knew. Experts with insight and knowledge on a lifestyle and belief system so alien to those espoused by the majority of our own are suddenly in great demand. The chess players who perceive the thinking and the wiles of the new enemy are also in the limelight. What is the likely next move, or next set of moves? Anthrax? Some sort of biological warfare? Ground-level bombings? Computer or on-line based attacks? The financial backbone of the free world could be subject to attack in any number of arenas, which would bring about a degree of annihilation of the market systems of much of the world. This makes hacker and security professionals important players in the war against the unknown enemy. Communications specialists (satellite, fiber, radiowave, and the internet) and infiltrators are the new intelligence infantry. The Internet financial bubble may have burst, but there is increased value in what the pencil-protector toting nerds have to offer. This may be the first line of defense in the coming new reality.
