Scoreboard: globalisation 1, terrorism 0
By BRUCE C. WOLPE Tuesday 9 October 2001
As the coalition of the willing begins to mete out justice and retribution for the catastrophe of September 11, the comprehensive nature of the victory is already clear. The forces of globalisation and modernisation have secured a decisive victory over the fomenters of terror and unholy war.
And it wasn't even close.
The last time a challenge of this type erupted on a global basis was when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August, 1991. Over the subsequent four months, US president George Bush, spurred by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, assembled a Western-Arabian coalition that would liberate Kuwait with an allied expeditionary force of more than 250,000 troops.
That first war of the post-modern era was driven not only by the recognition of the need to blow back a tyrant who had conquered another country, but to preserve the emerging new global economy.
Saddam was simply not going to be allowed to get out of hand and destroy the growing prosperity and wealth driven by an interconnected world of free and opening markets.
While Kuwait was liberated, Saddam unfortunately was not toppled - resulting in successive efforts throughout the 1990s to keep the man in his box and render him as contained a threat as possible.
The same logic applied in Kosovo and Serbia in the late 1990s. The democracies of Europe, with the US, were not going to permit Milosevic to continue to unleash the virus of genocide, and destroy Europe in the process. A bombing campaign stopped his aggression and ultimately drove him from power.
This expression of a common interest by the modern world to prevent acts of war or terrorism from causing events to spiral out of control - and thereby threaten our freedom and our livelihood - has reached even stronger heights in the present crisis.
The coalition now built by President George W. Bush, cemented by the eloquence and leadership of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is far more wide-ranging than what we saw a decade ago.
Russia has joined with NATO, which was arrayed against Moscow for decades; India and Pakistan, which rattled nuclear missiles against each other two years ago, are on the same side, against the Taliban; only six months after shooting down a US spy plane, China has given unhesitating support to Washington; American forces are deployed in former Soviet republics; and Muslim countries from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia are partners with the West.
With more than 100 nations behind the effort, is there any doubt as to who has won?
Of course there will be tensions - significant ones - in the coalition, particularly now that military action is being taken. Every Islamic government on America's side will be under substantial domestic pressure. And Israel, which has been fighting the cousins of the terrorists America is stalking in Afghanistan, is being told to take a cold shower. The one leader most conspicuously absent from the White House is Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose country is the world's leading victim of terror.
But these issues barely impinge on the outcome of the main game. This world, which has evolved after a century of struggle - the most horrific century in history, with millions dead and blood on every continent - has clearly made decisive and affirmative choices for freedom and for freer markets, and for modernity, technology, interconnection and harmonisation of cultures and economies.
This is precisely what was attacked in New York and Washington, and is precisely why people around the world are so horrified by it.
Timothy McVeigh blew up a government building in Oklahoma City to wage his war on the US, and it was an attack on all Americans. Osama bin Laden destroyed the World Trade Centre and took out part of the Pentagon as part of his war, and it was an attack on everyone participating in the life and times of our world. Very serious damage has been done. But both failed miserably.
Writing after September 11 in The Wall Street Journal, Frances Fukiyama concluded: "Modernity is a very powerful freight train that will not be derailed by recent events, however painful and unprecedented. Democracy and free markets will continue to expand over time as the dominant organising principles for much of the world."
The end of history for the bad guys, indeed.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/state/2001/10/09/FFX61R06JSC.html
===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 http://www.yaysoft.com
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