Monday, October 28, 2002

Bush and Putin: Will Their People Suffer the Consequences? Just a short note on the horrible situation in Moscow.  I think it is important to pin responsibility, and for the generals who planned this attack on the terrorists to be punished.  Even though some military response to the Chechens may have been inevitable, and even necessary, that does not excuse 1) not being more careful about planning, especially about how to handle the hostages injured in the attack, and 2) not seeking a political solution in Chechnya, and 3) not negotiating longer so that an attack was truly the last resort.    Terrorism is not an excuse for irresponsibility.  This is where Bush is in the same boat as Putin.  Bush is using terrorism to avoid taking responsibility himself—and in the event of a major terrorist disaster like that in Russia happening here, Bush will act in the same way, claiming that no matter what he may have done to exacerbate the situation, it is the terrorists fault.   Bush could 1) negotiate political solutions in Israel/Palestine, and in Iraq and North Korea, 2) force the generals and the FBI to be accountable for their mistakes, as in Waco.  Remember it was the Waco disaster, similar in many ways to what happened in Moscow, that spurred Timothy McVeigh to bomb the Oklahoma federal building.   But Bush is not concerned about his responsibility for exposing America to more terrorist dangers.    The ultimate horror is for Bush, through his aggressive unwillingness to negotiate, to bring about a disaster of awful magnitude in America.  How could this happen?  If we allow Bush to ignore the consequences of his actions in the name of fighting terrorism, we are setting ourselves up for a situation similar to that in Russia.   Terrorism does not occur in a vacuum.  Like war, it is politics by other means. Effectively dealing with terrorism does not mean ignoring the political grievances that underlie terrorist acts, but in building a world consensus that terrorist actions are beyond the pale—not acceptable, inhuman, out of bounds.  This can only happen when the political dimension of terrorism is addressed seriously, not ignored by someone like Bush who will never take responsibility for the consequences of this failure.   You know the childhood saying “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”.  Well, we have chosen to build a huge, interdependent glass house, where a lone gunman who doesn’t play by the rules can terrorize millions of people.  I like our glass house—but those who think it is a fortress are throwing boulders, and one day someone will throw one back.  We will never be safe from terrorists militarily without consigning ourselves to a totalitarian state.  Bush’s irresponsibility on terrorism is also in not recognizing, protecting, and strengthening the ultimate fragility of the social bonds of democracy within which we live. 11:39:58 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2002 Toby Sackton. Last update: 12/26/2002; 9:30:56 PM.