The lead, front-page article in today's New York Times reports on American plans for Afghanistan. "The last thing Washington wants is a chaotic situation that creates a haven for terrorists and destabilizes the neighboring countries," the Times reports.
The Times lets this statement pass unchallenged, but it is in fact characteristic of the flawed assumptions that have contributed to America's vulnerability.
"A chaotic situation that creates a haven for terrorists." In fact the situations that spawn terrorists are characterized not by chaos but by an authoritarian repression characterized by an abundance of dictatorial order. Osama Bin Laden was born into wealth in Saudi Arabia, a kingdom characterized by ruthless and strict enforcement of Islamic law. Other terrorist-spawning regimes, like Egypt, Syria and Iran, are characterized by a state-controlled press, powerful secret police forces and dictatorial control. The chaos inherent in a free-market democratic republic like America provides natural safety-valves for discontent and leads to general contentment of the population. The enforced order of the dictatorships leads to misery and to the tendency of repressive regimes to channel the frustration of their citizens into external aggression in the form of terrorism. There may be some situations, like South Florida or Logan Airport, where chaos allows terrorists to flourish for brief periods. But in the long run the terrorist threat emanates not from chaos but from an excess of order.
"Destabilizes the neighboring countries." One of the countries that borders Afghanistan is Iran. Another is China. Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department. American courts have found the government of Iran responsible for attacks on American civilians. The Iranian parliament approves each year a budget that includes a line-item to fund support for terrorism. They debate it there the way Americans would debate, say, how much to spend on ethanol subsidies or highway improvements. The hard-line clerics who rule Iran have repeatedly shut down reformist newspapers and violently repressed student demonstrations. In this context, destabilizing Iran shouldn't be the "last thing" Washington wants. It should be the first thing. China is a similarly authoritarian regime that has been repressing its own people and arming Iran with missile technology. "Stability" in these countries is a euphemism for "continued lack of liberty." Would the Times, and the officials it quotes in Washington, have opposed the American revolution for fear it would "destabilize" the colonial regime in the colonies? Would the Times have opposed Solidarity in Poland for fear it would "destabilize" the Soviet Union? A little instability in the short run may lead to more freedom and democracy (and stability, for that matter) in the long run.
Friendly: A front-page article in today's New York Times refers to "friendly Muslim countries -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan." Saudi Arabia and Egypt may be friendly to terrorists, but they are not friendly to the United States. Saudi Arabia has been resisting American requests to use bases there to attack Afghanistan, according to reports by the Associated Press and the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz. As Stephen Schwartz writes in the Spectator, "The Saudis have played a doublegame for years, more or less as Stalin did with the West during the Second World War. They pretended to be allies in a struggle against Saddam Hussein while spreading Wahhabi ideology, just as Stalin promoted 'antifascist' coalition with the US while carrying out espionage and subversion on American territory. The motive was the same: the belief that the West was or is decadent and doomed." As for Egypt, the Middle East Media Research Institute has reported that columnist Mahmoud Abd Al-Mun'im Murad of the Egyptian government-sponsored daily Al-Akhbar wrote on August 28, "The Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbor, must be destroyed because of following the idiotic American policy that goes from disgrace to disgrace in the swamp of bias and blind fanaticism." He further announced that "the age of the American collapse has begun." The inability to distinguish between friends and enemies is a fault that leads to vulnerability.
Petty Crimes: A dispatch from Berlin in the international section of today's New York Times reports on a judge who was nicknamed "Judge Merciless" by some Germans "for tough sentences for petty crimes, including long terms for a graffiti sprayer and a woman who scratched parked cars." Well, the Times news department may consider graffiti spraying and car-scratching to be "petty" crimes, but they aren't petty to those whose homes or businesses or cars are being vandalized. Is a swastika repeatedly sprayed on a German synagogue a "petty" crime?
New In Letters: The Letters about the Times section was updated over the weekend with letters about topics including war movies, terrorist chic, and the families of American servicemen. The Letters about Smartertimes section was updated over the weekend with comments about topics including Michael Bloomberg's taxes, the "working class," and the digital divide.