Thoughts on fighting terrorism.

by zenwolf on July 25, 2002

September 11, 2001 is the day that most Americans found out about terrorism. This prompted us to launch “The War on Terrorism”, which is odd since terrorism was nothing new. However, most Americans were too busy drinking coffee in Starbucks and buying Tommy Hilfiger jeans to notice that there was actually terrorism going on in the real world well before the events on September 11th.

Terrorism has always been an interest of mine, well before it became the topic of the day. Back in 1986 I purchased a book that was quite an interesting read: The War Against The Terrorists: How to Win It by Gayle Rivers. A long night of playing Ghost Recon and downloading porn has ways of making my mind function in strange ways… I recalled reading this book, which, 16 years later, is pretty damn impressive. So, I started digging through my large collection of books and finally found the box with this one it in.

This book is listed as being out of print at Amazon so I’d suggest a trip to your public library to see if they have a copy, but don’t check it out since the FBI is looking into who checks out what books in “The War on Terrorism” since we all know terrorists use public libraries to plan their attacks of evil.

A portion of the above paragraph was brought to you by the word SARCASM, and a reading of Mr. Rivers book will help you understand that our “War on Terrorism” as it is being conducted now is doomed to failure. Also a reading of his book will show you that fighting terrorists is a dirty business.

But lets look at some of the things Mr. Rivers points out in his book written in 1986 which make one wonder what kind of anti-terrorist stuff has been going on for the last 15 or so years:

  1. From page 119 “some terrorists are already in place in the United States.”
  2. From page 129 “I can’t close this chapter without addressing the special problems of America’s greatest and most vulnerable city, New York.”
  3. Also from page 129 “Above the tunnels are tall buildings, swaying in the wind. The skyscrapers are especially vulnerable to fires started on the high floors”
  4. And from page 131 “Viewing the Manhattan skyline is to see one of the wonders of the world. To a trained counter-terrorist, it is a frightening image of too many high-gain, cost effective targets for terrorists to aim at.”

What? Is this guy fricking Nostradamus or something?

Chapter 4 of this book is titled The Truth about Skyjacking. While Mr. Rivers doesn’t address the idea of hijackers using a plane as a huge missile, he does go into detail on some very interesting ideas. You think the new screening procedures for passengers and baggage is going to work? You think having Air Marshals or arming the pilots is going to work? Read the book and see why these are feel-good procedures more than actual ways to prevent skyjacking.

Bio-terror and nuclear terrorism are now mainstream ideas the media talks about on a daily basis. In 1986 Mr. Rivers wrote “Moreover, when the United States becomes the primary target for terrorist warfare, nuclear devices won’t have to cross any borders. The material is in the country, and the terrorists who are mentally prepared to use it are already in the United States.”

He also makes the point that the “War on Drugs” has been unsuccessful in preventing drugs from coming across the borders; how can we expect that nuclear and bio-weaponry will be prevented?

Mr. Rivers also addresses the media and the mind-set of the West and how they are counter productive to effective counter-terrorism. Then Mr. Rivers finally puts the gloves down and explains things the way they are. From page 215:

The mind-set of the Western democracies must come about like a yacht under sail when the wind changes. There has been a lot of talk about capturing terrorists and bringing them to trial, like Eichman. How many show trials is the West ready for? Ten, thirty, a hundred? The terrorists will just keep coming. And what they will demand in exchange for the lives of new hostages is the release of their comrades and leaders being tried.

A detained terrorist is a danger.

A jailed terrorist will cause a new outrage.

We have to prepare our minds for the fact that when dealing with suicidal fanatics, the aim of counterterrorism is to kill terrorists and not to capture them. The only excuse for capturing a terrorist is to submit him to expert interrogation to obtain intelligence information about other terrorists or planned future terrorist acts.”

Does this ring a bell with the John Walker Lindh and Zacarias Moussaoui cases?

It is quite disturbing to reread this book some 16 years after it was published, and especially disturbing after September 11th and what has followed in our “War on Terrorism”. It is time that we look at the face of terrorism and see what it really is and that we start to think about the feel good measures passed by our government and what these measures really are doing. Take a good long look at the Patriot Act and other so-called strategies for winning “The War on Terrorism”. Reading this book is a great first step for understanding what will and what won’t work, and will make you question past and current counter-terrorism efforts and ideas. As much as we want to wave our flags and beat our chests in Patriotic Pride, we need to remember that terrorism is a global problem. Terrorism has been waged against America for some time now. It simply took an event such as September 11th to make everyone understand it.

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