Louder Than Bombs
As the threat of global conflict looms ever larger, there’s a good argument to be made for holding back our military might
by Randy Horick
The lingering worries over the next possible target for terrorism are being pushed aside by another uncertainty: how to respond.
We know how many of us are tempted to respond: Nuke the terrorist camps like a roach colony. Bomb the Taliban into whatever came before the Stone Age in which they live. Threaten other Islamic countries that don’t join the crusade. (If we really want to play dirty, we could always send them Jerry Falwell.)
One of the most diabolical aspects of the terrorist attack, however, is that it came with a delayed booby trap—the tempting responses could well lead us to a longer nightmare.
America is the world’s foremost military power, but that power could work against us unless we exercise it with the greatest precision and care. The Afghan people, who largely despise the tyrants of the Taliban, are not our enemies. But they will be if, in our rush to vengeance, we inflict more misery on their miserable populace.
Pakistan, our nominal but nervous ally, supports us at great peril. It’s a failed nation-state that, out of fear of its own huge numbers of extremist nutballs, backed the Taliban until this week. Our troops on Pakistani soil could lead to the toppling of the government and its replacement by a fundamentalist, Taliban-style regime. Such a move could even destabilize moderate Arab states, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, whose leaders we count as friends but whose populations are deeply divided about the U.S.
These risks point to bin Laden’s deeper objective beyond inflicting death and terror. He hopes to foment a holy war between Islam and the West, and all but the most precise surgical actions could help him recruit among the masses of desperate poor who believe they have nothing to lose. He would like to be able to show them that America bombs innocent Muslims abroad and oppresses them at home—that our high-sounding ideals are mere hype.
This is not just a war against terrorism but against hate—the blind, reasonless hate that the extremists espouse. If we surrender to it, then bin Laden has won. He will have sucked us into the cycle of violence and vengeance that has enslaved the Israelis and Palestinians. This time, we cannot defeat fire with fire.
That does not mean there’s no role for military force. If we can safely isolate terrorist targets, we will obliterate them. If the Taliban continue to honor bin Laden as their guest, then we will declare war on them, maintaining every option that such a declaration implies. In our pursuit of justice, we need both carrots and sticks.
But we must remember that it’s not from lack of conviction that our friends in the Arab world urge a careful, cooperative approach. And we should recall that when Elijah was threatened by his enemies, God spoke to him not through earthquake, wind, or fire, but in the still, small voice of calm. That is the voice we need to hear now.
Fortunately, like the Japanese attackers on Pearl Harbor, the haters may have underestimated us. Though there have been too many incidents of misdirected venting against American Muslims, the larger result of the terrorist attack has been to bring us together, to remind us that Islam worships the God of Abraham and regards Jesus as a prophet. Not in his most cracked opium dream could bin Laden envision imams and rabbis offering prayers together in a Christian church.
Nor could he have foreseen how the world would rally against his hate. (His victims were international: 500 Britons, 100 Australians, Chinese, Germans, Japanese, Mexicans, and fellow Muslims.) A door has opened to Iran that our diplomats couldn’t have budged. Even the Palestinians are asking to join our anti-terrorism coalition.
Let them join, if they’re serious. Let everyone join. Because bin Laden forgets that, besides our military power, America is a moral beacon and the world’s strongest economic power. Those forces may prove to be our most potent weapons.
We can use that power to confiscate bin Laden’s $300 million, which mostly rests in Western banks, and give it to the families of his victims.
We can use it to lead the rest of the world in economically strangling any nation that sanctions terrorists.
We can also use that economic power in positive ways—offering aid to Afghanistan and a Marshall Plan for the Palestinians (over the Israeli government’s objections, if necessary)—that would expose as liars those who teach that America is the face of evil.
If we slowly, carefully build such a coalition, it may be his fellow Muslims who ultimately deliver bin Laden and his gang of murderers to justice. They may come to recognize him not as a defender of the faith but as a traitor to Islam—a religion of peace—and perceive they have more to gain through friendship with us than with him.
Maybe that sounds naïve. But it may prove more realistic than the alternatives that rely primarily on weapons and troops.
Osama bin Laden has sold his soul to hate. The greater threat is not that he will escape justice but that he will drag America into his hell. That is the only place we should not pursue him.
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