new article by hedi enghelberg (the war on terror)

Submitted by hedi enghelberg (United States), Oct 9, 2006 at 12:06

The war on terror

Dedicated to Marian Bercovici Z"L, Staff Sergeant, dead on August 06^th, 2006, one of the 12 reservist killed by a Katyusha rocket near kibbutz Kfar Giladi, northern Israeli frontier & to all the other heroic members of the IDF dead in the Lebanon War II

My readers have to know a few things about this war, The War on Terror. They have to read the news between the lines, from televisions, to Internet, blogs and pod casts. Not all is black and white. There are many angles to this war. History repeats itself and one has to go back to the Roman Empire history and see how the war on Mediterranean Pirates was conducted, maybe the first modern war on terror, around 58-48 BC.

The basic line is that we have to consider the terrorism as the use of death as a political weapon.

• The war on terror is a very asymmetrical war: on one side, small and homogenous groups of terrorists, on the other, organized societies and conventional armies. The terrorist act against small groups of people, sometimes only 2-3 people, on a pyramidal structure.

• The conventional concept of military operations at the tactical and strategically level, have been replaced by the threat of unconventional weapons (chemical, biological, WMD, atomic) and the terror (civilian targets, suicidal attacks, propaganda, etc.).

• The concept of Western civilization and his armies models (citizen army), on a democratic and open society cannot oppose the fundamentalist and radical Islamic groups philosophy of death and martyrdoms, because simply there is a very deep abyss of moral values.

• This war on terror is a religious war: the Judeo-Christian way of leaving and democratic value vs. / against the Islamic-Nazi type terrorist (George Bush, August 07, 2006), highly indoctrinated by radical Islamists and fundamentalism.

• Our perception of war is based on the modern concept of Greek and Roman models, which are difficult and slow to adapt to this asymmetric war on terror, against small cells of terrorists. As everybody seems to realize now, we have to win all the time, when the terrorist have to win or score a direct hit only once.

• This war on terror can be seen as the the muslim world resisting modernism. With the introduction of modernism (democracy) in societies there is no place for fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is the immediate reaction to modernism; it's the modernism's rejection.

• The terrorists have no ethical dilemmas. They want only to kill and project their philosophy by fear.

• The war on terror is a battle of nerves, minds and technology.

• The terrorists do not accept any of the Western civilization or democratic values: modernism, moderation, compromise, the power of majority, liberty, freedom, prosperity, individual initiative, the right of opposition, debate, human rights, education.

• The terrorist ideology is death. Our ideology is life.

• All terrorists are highly trained (due to the relative easiness and inexpensive access to technology), homogenous and motivated.

• Nobody can conduct was against a suicide attack. Se the history and the first kamikaze attack on American Fleet in the Pacific War, 1944-1945.

• All the time the terrorists are one step forward. The order forces and conventional military personnel actions are only reactions, mainly because the democratic and human values shared by Judeo-Christian religions and democracies.

• This new war on terror operates on new areas as Internet, media news, radio, television. The civilians, for the first time in history, can participate in the war with their opinions. This is a new type of war.

• The terrorists maximize & manipulate the mass media to their advantage.

• There is no moral, decency or reasons in terrorist attacks.

• The technology help the terrorist win the war. The news can be seen instantaneous. The terrorist are finding support in mass media networks and help from television, satellite telecom and internet into broadcasting their ideas, ideology and credo.

• The terrorist operates from within civil organizes and pacifist societies, taking advantage of all civil freedom in a democratic country: freedom of movement, freedom of action, access to resources, anonymity, easy and cheap access to technology.

• Finances are providing by rich oil-export countries, indifferent to this trend, that one day will explode in their faces: a change in regime and an all fundamentalism world.

• The civilian & democratic societies have to play by the rules and the terrorist play without rules. This war cannot win operating with "white gloves".

• No Geneva Convention can be applicable to the war on terror. They, the terrorist, are ruthless. This is not a regular/conventional war, as much we can say that the war is civilized. No war is civilized! (The Geneva Convention was universally adopted, making this instrument the only one signed by all countries on the face of the Earth).

• The terrorists make no distinction between armed forces and civilians. They prefer more civilian casualties, for the pressure this will put on the elected governments. The terrorist, in all the instances they can, are using the civilians as human shields.

• The terrorists avoid direct confrontation with regular military forces and prefer to melt into civilian societies.

• The war on terror will be a very long war, with small advances and small victories on parts of civilized societies, because the terrorists are very much hidden in our societies.

As Mao Zedong said "kill one and you will put terror and fear in one million", the terrorist operate form the same psychological base.

Like from the 60', when the first outburst of terrorism were "PERFORMED" in the western world, again, today only Israel and USA are fighting this war, and again, alone: all other western countries and government are deeply somnolent and indifferent to the high price in human lives and equipment these two countries are paying. We can count only with the modest contribution of England and his Commonwealth related countries in this war. But I think this trend will change with what we see and perceive in Iraq, the Iran and North Korea persistent and innerving nuclear ambitions and the Second War in Lebanon, the first frontal war on a terrorist organization vs. a conventional ultra-modern army.

Some countries perceive the war on terror as a marginal conflict, to far away to reach their territory, commercial interest or citizens. They are wrong: today we all are global, and the terrorist as well!

Only with a concert of all civilized and democratic governments & order forces, the war on terror can be won. When I say all, I mean all the countries. If only one (country) will be left out of this war, the terrorists will find shelter, a save heaven there and a source of rearming and supplies (see Afghanistan example). We have to learn every lesson and adapt. We have to be pro-active and not only reactive to terrorism

We have to deny to all suspected terrorist any homes, any training, any finances resources, any telecom facilities and any moral grounds.

The societies have to employ multi tasking forces, special talents, a good evaluation of risks and stay vigil. There is no time for innocence! Some (countries) are acting like corporations and trying to get a free ride on this war on terror, but this ride will be very expensive. Sooner than later, all and every country on the face of the earth will face terrorism: domestic or imported.

Now, more than ever, we need very strong leaders, as Churchill, Roosevelt, Ben Gurion, Golda Meir, Sadat or Begin. Maybe an Alexander, Hannibal, Cesar or Napoleon is missing from our societies for far too long!

"This is not the end. This is not the beginning of the end. It is just the end of the beginning". (W. Churchill, after the difficult victory on the battle of El Alamein 1942-1943)

important note:

The western media is playing the high hand of the terrorist groups. Whatever video or message is posted in whatever obscure web around the world is broadcasted over and over again over the omnipotent network of CNN, FOX, NBC, ABC, BBC and other stations. The initial posted messages, intended only for few with internet access, due to the limitations of the terrorist hardware, is becoming overnight, in only matters of hours, a global manifest, in the hand of potent western television and newspapers organizations.

Do we see the same reciprocity in the Arab media, when the values, news & highlights of Western Culture are broadcasted over and over again to the Arab and Muslim public? NO!

The western news network are doing a good job, may a wonderful job in promoting and broadcasting the Muslim and Arab messages. This is not news for us! We know already who the enemy is and what we have to do. We don't need to see the terrorist propaganda in western media!

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