Watching Gravity

Decency occasionally gets involved in armed conflict. The American Civil War, for example, is revered for it. The weaponry was even and at issue was an evil that history could no longer tollerate. WW2 also had vestiges of virtue. Although civilians were purposely targeted, it was waged against a particularly odious expansionism and until its mushroom ending the weaponry was matched.

Nuclear weapons soon proliferated making wars between great nations un-winable. They did little to protect weak or poor countries however. Puppets continued to be installed, resources mined, and nameless millions condemned to corrupt government, sweatshop, and exploitation. Powerful nations held control and fought proxy wars within their borders. The Korean and Vietnamese struggles for re-unification were two of these wars. The weaponry was mismatched, the kill ratios were obscene, and fears of triggering nuclear holocaust kept the conflicts limited and endlessly brutal.

Citing the Twin Tower horrors as justification, the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are billed as wars against terrorism and are more punitive and expansionary in nature. They are efforts to protect America's oil interests, its Israeli allies, and to keep non-conventional weapons out of Arab hands. The invaded countries had been crippled by previous war or embargo, the weaponry was mismatched, and neither nation could mount a credible defense. Both countries however, have unblemished records of throwing invaders out. They have close brotherly allies, and as Vietnam demonstrated, death and devastation do not necessarily signal defeat.

Change is in the air and it is affecting the rules of conquest. Martyrs are finding success and the Mid-east is perfecting this new weapon. In Vietnam, Buddhist monks tried to shame invaders into leaving by dousing themselves with gasoline and lighting matches. In that super-power struggle the little saffron torches were barely noticed. In the Arab world, Muslim clerics urge believers to take invaders and their countrymen with them when making the ultimate sacrifice. The practice, labeled as "terrorism", is hotly denied, widely feared, and deadly effective.

Right now, in the ancient cradle of civilization, the world's most powerful nation is eye to eye with the only thing that brings this fractious area together; the sacred pleasure of throwing invaders out. The old, invoking its divine right to outposts and oil, is pitted against the new with its terrorist weapons. Pride, eternal promise, and thievery are at stake. Opening shots have been fired, invasions have been made, and in splendid imperial tradition, governments have been destroyed, hospitals and museums looted, and cultures trampled.

Anarchy speeds through litter strewn streets but oil is pumping, outposts are secure, and victory has been foolishly, prematurely, and erroneously proclaimed. These invasions are desperate retreating battles in a war that has been going on for decades but whose outcome has never been in doubt. From our vantage it is like watching gravity but un-stoppable forces of history are in motion. We are witness to the final bloody throes of colonialism.

It will not be the end of the world. We learned to live under a nuclear shadow because we had no choice. We will learn to live under a terrorist shadow for the same reason. In our increasingly interconnected world, opportunities for terrorism are growing not diminishing. Retreat is impossible. Attack spreads it. Appeasing encourages it. Counter-measures advertise it and generate fear. As Israel discovers to its daily horror, suicidal terrorism can not be defensed.

Left with no viable options, nations will learn to deal with each other fairly and with respect; concepts that between the powerful and the weak have never been tried. The ancient, proud, and contentious Mid-east taught us writing, arithmetic, civilization, and religion. It will now teach us manners.

Mid-east nations are also in for some painful lessons. More prosperous countries have discovered that success comes not from leaders, but from controlling them. Earthly power is hard to restrain but heavenly power is impossible so religion must be kept safely above the fray. Fair and bloodless ways to en-throne and de-throne rulers must be adopted and then these temporary kings must be shackled to rules. Rule makers must be shackled to constitutions and independent courts must insure that they remain tightly bound. The temptations of power are such that only a free people with a free press can hold the whole snarling system in check, (and even then, as the world can sorrowfully attest, leaders sometimes slither free to make their mischief).

Until the Mid-east learns to limit its leaders, its countries will be poor and quarrelsome. Until powerful nations learn the limits of their power, the world will be poor and quarrelsome. The education will produce rivers of blood but history will hike up her skirts and wade through. On one thing she is sorrowfully clear; like water behind a dam, decency between nations is delightful and sustaining and it occurs only where there is no other choice.

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