Ha'aretz editorial 09/14/01
By Yoel Marcus
America is in shock, but this shock is now hitting in waves.
The first wave was the terrorist attack that wiped out New York's skyline and struck a severe blow to the Pentagon, the heart of America's might. The second wave was the panic felt by the American public - a panic that was accompanied by a very long silence on the part of the country's leadership. The third wave will come when the bodies of the victims - or whatever is left of them - are removed from the ruins of the destroyed World Trade Center, when the thousands of funerals are held and when the heart-breaking personal tragedies are told. The fourth wave will be the one in which Americans will begin asking questions, such as: How could all of this have happened? And with whom will Uncle Sam have to settle accounts?
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has announced that the terrorist attack on the United States was a declaration of war against his country and that Americans "want us to act as if we are at war and we're going to do that - dramatically and militarily." The problem with such a determined declaration is that for the moment, the United States has not the foggiest idea as to the identity of the enemy against whom this war will be waged.
According to the assessment of the experts, at least 60-70 individuals were involved in the preparation of the various stages of this operation and it will take some time before it can be deduced who managed to fool the U.S. intelligence networks in such a painfully effective manner, who were the brains behind this attack, and who backed it.
Osama bin Laden is the chief suspect so far; however, terrorism is an octopus whose home base is Islamic fundamentalism - the supplier of the suicide-bombers - and whose tentacles will soon be nuclear-tipped.
Many people have been drawing comparisons between this serious blunder by U.S. intelligence and the blunder that preceded Pearl Harbor. There is something in these comparisons. Because of the abundance of sophisticated, electronic listening networks, the Americans overlooked the need for agents to infiltrate states and terrorist organizations. Apparently, the computer is no substitute for the stool pigeon.
However, the principal likeness between these two operations - the level of craftiness and deception of which would make any snake proud - lies in the fact that like Pearl Harbor, Tuesday's terrorist attack has pushed Uncle Sam into declaring war. Americans feel threatened on their home turf and this feeling is providing President George W. Bush with the same mandate that Franklin Delano Roosevelt received from his nation for declaring war. This time, the U.S. is declaring war not against a state, but rather against terrorism. This is a new breed of world war.
America is a mighty superpower that moves very slowly. Its strength - or, at times, its weakness - lies in the fact that it never offers knee-jerk reactions. Wherever terrorism has hit American personnel - from Lebanon to Somalia - the U.S. has always opted to bring its troops home. Its cumbersome movements recall those of an elephant whose heavy, clumsy walk is never hampered by the parasites and ticks it carries on its back. When elephants feel threatened, however, they begin to gallop wildly, crushing everything in their path. This route is known as the "elephants' path," and all the animals in the jungle make sure to stay clear of it.
When America focuses on a certain topic, no power on earth can stop it. The United States woke up from a deep slumber when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics sent the first satellite into space. America galloped into the space race and kept up its rapid pace until its Space Wars program led to the collapse of the USSR.
A terrorist attack in which in the space of a single day, the number of dead Americans could turn out to be half the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the eight years of the Vietnam War, has thrown America into a rage as it resolutely enters the elephants' path. The United States will not rest until it has found out who the perpetrators of the attack were, who sent them, who collaborated with them from within the United States and beyond its borders, what the extent of the involvement of the supposedly charitable organizations that transferred funds to the terrorist organizations was, and which Islamic states provided backing and intelligence assistance.
Uncle Sam's purpose will not be revenge. Instead, the goal will be the launching of a crushing, protracted war against terrorism, in cooperation with the world's democracies, which saw how, in the course of only one hour, four terrorist cells wreaked global havoc.
The Palestinian Authority was frightened by scenes of joy throughout the territories. However, those who do not condemn terrorism against civilian targets and who even encourage it should not be surprised if their own citizens hand out candies to express happiness over America's calamity.
The Americans have now entered a stage in which they will display no patience whatsoever toward terrorism and will conduct their own survey to determine who is on their side and who is on the side of the terrorists. The United States will use force against and impose sanctions on all those who back terrorism or who give it the green light. These moves will have far-reaching implications for the Middle East region, which finds itself in the very eye of the terrorist storm.
PA Chairman Yasser Arafat will have to decide which side he is on: good or evil. Israel will be shown more understanding for its own struggle against terrorism; however, with the campaign against terrorism being led by the United States, Israel would be making a grave mistake if it were to try to act like a maverick and think it could do whatever it pleased in the war against terror.
The only option as far as the Palestinians and the Israelis are concerned is a cease-fire combined with a dialogue. This is certainly no time for anybody to be in the elephants' path.
By Yoel Marcus
America is in shock, but this shock is now hitting in waves.
The first wave was the terrorist attack that wiped out New York's skyline and struck a severe blow to the Pentagon, the heart of America's might. The second wave was the panic felt by the American public - a panic that was accompanied by a very long silence on the part of the country's leadership. The third wave will come when the bodies of the victims - or whatever is left of them - are removed from the ruins of the destroyed World Trade Center, when the thousands of funerals are held and when the heart-breaking personal tragedies are told. The fourth wave will be the one in which Americans will begin asking questions, such as: How could all of this have happened? And with whom will Uncle Sam have to settle accounts?
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has announced that the terrorist attack on the United States was a declaration of war against his country and that Americans "want us to act as if we are at war and we're going to do that - dramatically and militarily." The problem with such a determined declaration is that for the moment, the United States has not the foggiest idea as to the identity of the enemy against whom this war will be waged.
According to the assessment of the experts, at least 60-70 individuals were involved in the preparation of the various stages of this operation and it will take some time before it can be deduced who managed to fool the U.S. intelligence networks in such a painfully effective manner, who were the brains behind this attack, and who backed it.
Osama bin Laden is the chief suspect so far; however, terrorism is an octopus whose home base is Islamic fundamentalism - the supplier of the suicide-bombers - and whose tentacles will soon be nuclear-tipped.
Many people have been drawing comparisons between this serious blunder by U.S. intelligence and the blunder that preceded Pearl Harbor. There is something in these comparisons. Because of the abundance of sophisticated, electronic listening networks, the Americans overlooked the need for agents to infiltrate states and terrorist organizations. Apparently, the computer is no substitute for the stool pigeon.
However, the principal likeness between these two operations - the level of craftiness and deception of which would make any snake proud - lies in the fact that like Pearl Harbor, Tuesday's terrorist attack has pushed Uncle Sam into declaring war. Americans feel threatened on their home turf and this feeling is providing President George W. Bush with the same mandate that Franklin Delano Roosevelt received from his nation for declaring war. This time, the U.S. is declaring war not against a state, but rather against terrorism. This is a new breed of world war.
America is a mighty superpower that moves very slowly. Its strength - or, at times, its weakness - lies in the fact that it never offers knee-jerk reactions. Wherever terrorism has hit American personnel - from Lebanon to Somalia - the U.S. has always opted to bring its troops home. Its cumbersome movements recall those of an elephant whose heavy, clumsy walk is never hampered by the parasites and ticks it carries on its back. When elephants feel threatened, however, they begin to gallop wildly, crushing everything in their path. This route is known as the "elephants' path," and all the animals in the jungle make sure to stay clear of it.
When America focuses on a certain topic, no power on earth can stop it. The United States woke up from a deep slumber when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics sent the first satellite into space. America galloped into the space race and kept up its rapid pace until its Space Wars program led to the collapse of the USSR.
A terrorist attack in which in the space of a single day, the number of dead Americans could turn out to be half the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the eight years of the Vietnam War, has thrown America into a rage as it resolutely enters the elephants' path. The United States will not rest until it has found out who the perpetrators of the attack were, who sent them, who collaborated with them from within the United States and beyond its borders, what the extent of the involvement of the supposedly charitable organizations that transferred funds to the terrorist organizations was, and which Islamic states provided backing and intelligence assistance.
Uncle Sam's purpose will not be revenge. Instead, the goal will be the launching of a crushing, protracted war against terrorism, in cooperation with the world's democracies, which saw how, in the course of only one hour, four terrorist cells wreaked global havoc.
The Palestinian Authority was frightened by scenes of joy throughout the territories. However, those who do not condemn terrorism against civilian targets and who even encourage it should not be surprised if their own citizens hand out candies to express happiness over America's calamity.
The Americans have now entered a stage in which they will display no patience whatsoever toward terrorism and will conduct their own survey to determine who is on their side and who is on the side of the terrorists. The United States will use force against and impose sanctions on all those who back terrorism or who give it the green light. These moves will have far-reaching implications for the Middle East region, which finds itself in the very eye of the terrorist storm.
PA Chairman Yasser Arafat will have to decide which side he is on: good or evil. Israel will be shown more understanding for its own struggle against terrorism; however, with the campaign against terrorism being led by the United States, Israel would be making a grave mistake if it were to try to act like a maverick and think it could do whatever it pleased in the war against terror.
The only option as far as the Palestinians and the Israelis are concerned is a cease-fire combined with a dialogue. This is certainly no time for anybody to be in the elephants' path.