War on terror nourishes the enemy

The West's cynical and determinedly hysterical response to terrorism, far from defeating it,

will only feed the monster,
writes Simon Jenkins

September 04, 2004

Bush likewise draws strength by portraying rival John Kerry as likely to appease the global monster of terror.

Since these are battles in which there is neither victory nor defeat, the public is gorged instead on a diet of retaliatory bloodfests. Osama bin Laden must be delighted.

I can imagine nothing more ghastly than an eternal war in which evil-doers feast on the mistakes of those in power, and in which those in power do so, too. Small wonder that Joseph Conrad could pessimistically imagine that "the life-history of the Earth must ... be one of relentless warfare. Neither his fellows, nor his gods, nor his passions will leave a man alone."

Just when the West has conquered communism, it craves a new and potent enemy. It almost takes comfort in the car bomber. As Conrad said, both terrorist and policeman suck at the same breast -- that of public fear.

International terror is not an "ism". It is a criminal tactic of publicity-seeking for a cause, one to which the West seems astonishingly vulnerable. Like a nuclear reaction, it catalyses a tiny explosion into a massive one. It does so because democracy feeds it fissile material -- repression, publicity, martyrdom and the pornography of fear. Like the judo fighter, the terrorist need only use his opponent's weight to fell him.

Insecure leaders make their enemies into heroes and this phenomenon now is enveloping international terrorism. Everyone from gunmakers to think tanks has a vested interest in boosting its status and its menace, in suggesting ludicrously that such criminals can undermine the West's way of life.

Terrorism must be global and devastating, or how else will presidents and prime ministers win re-election? Moscow must be facing an international foe or how else will Putin excuse the chaos in Chechnya?

This is weakness, not strength. It gives in to terror. In the Middle East and Iraq, the US and its allies offer terrorists the martyrdom they seek, killing their families and bombing their communities. Sympathisers are imprisoned without trial. Back home the propellant of terror -- public opinion -- is fed constant threats and restriction of liberty.

Such weakness is flagrant appeasement. It flatters the terrorist with obsessive security across two continents. Wars are fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Yet billions of dollars have not sprung bin Laden from the Pashtun heartlands and have made Iraq the most lawless place on earth. The condottieri of terror are celebrated on T-shirts across half the globe. No sane person can maintain that the world is safer as a result.