The question raised by Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Sheer and the BBC documentary _The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear_ (Part 1 "Baby It's Cold Outside," <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/3755686.stm>; Part 2 "The Phantom Victory," <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/3951615.stm>; and Part 3 "The Shadows In The Cave," <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/3970901.stm>) that Sheer mentions is NOT whether there have and will be terrorist attacks BUT whether terrorists are all CENTRALIZED into a hierarchical organization called Al Qaeda, as the Bush Team's conspiracy theory (which the Bush Team don't believe in themselves) has us believe:
<blockquote> Terrorism is deeply threatening, but it appears to be a much more fragmented and complex phenomenon than the octopus-network image of Al Qaeda, with Bin Laden as its head, would suggest.
While the BBC documentary acknowledges that the threat of terrorism is both real and growing, it disagrees that the threat is centralized:
"There are dangerous and fanatical individuals and groups around the world who have been inspired by extreme Islamist ideas and who will use the techniques of mass terror -- the attacks on America and Madrid make this only too clear. But the nightmare vision of a uniquely powerful hidden organization waiting to strike our societies is an illusion. Wherever one looks for this Al Qaeda organization, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the 'sleeper cells' in America, the British and Americans are chasing a phantom enemy." (Robert Scheer, "Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?" <em>Los Angeles Times</em>, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer11jan11,0,5399604.story">January 11, 2005</a>)</blockquote>
It appears that you can watch the documentary yourself if you have a fast connection (I don't, so I can't -- when I click on the links below, my Netscape Navigator crashes):
<http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1037.htm> <http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1038.htm>
Like _Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire_ <http://www.hijackingcatastrophe.org/>, the BBC documentary is probably useful.
During the otherwise stupefying presidential election campaign in 2004, there were a couple of truthful moments: both Bush and Kerry admitted that the "war on terror" cannot be won -- terrorism, like drug use, can only be managed, as long as we live in the kind of world we live in.
"Asked on NBC television whether America could win its 'war on terror', the president had replied: 'I don't think you can win it. But I think you can create conditions so that the -- those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world'" (Julian Borger, "President Admits War on Terror Cannot Be Won," <em>The Guardian</em>, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1293995,00.html">August 31, 2004</a>).
"When I asked Kerry what it would take for Americans to feel safe again, he displayed a much less apocalyptic worldview. 'We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance,' Kerry said. 'As a former law-enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life'" (Matt Bai, "Kerry's Undeclared War," <em>New York Times</em>, <a href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/101104J.shtml">October 10, 2004</a>).
The reason you cannot win the "war on terror" is that there is no single organization that you can defeat and make the world free from terrorism.
Of course, it is possible that discussion of terrorism at LBO-talk, like the Bush Team's propaganda for mass consumption, is so dumbed down that the real question that Sheer and BBC are asking cannot be discussed intelligently. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>