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Jonathan Friendly is the national editor of , which owns the weekly Jewish newspapers in Detroit and Atlanta. He is a former journalism professor at the University of Michigan and a former reporter and editor at The New York Times.
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By Jonathan Friendly
March 29, 2004
"Any sign of weakness or retreat simply validates terrorist violence and invites more violence for all nations," President George W. Bush said last week on the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. "The only certain way to protect our people is by early, united and decisive action." If only it were that simple.
But it isn't, and the President's insistence on a black-and-white, short-term view of how to deal with terrorism serves neither the nation nor the world very well. He could surely find a more nuanced and effective approach by simply paying attention to the nation that has endured the most sustained terror assaults of the modern era, Israel.
Israel has obviously not stopped the Palestinian violence nor significantly undercut the Arab nations' support for what those nations insist are resistance fighters and militants and martyrs. But throughout its 56 years, the Jewish state has repeatedly shown the strength and determination to survive despite the unrelenting efforts of its neighbors to wipe it out.
Monday's assassination of the Hamas leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, gave further evidence that Israel is committed to 'decisive action,' an affirmation - in any were needed - that its planned withdrawal from the settlements in the Gaza Strip is not a sign of weakness nor a concession to terrorism. But the price of that action, at least in the near term, will almost certainly be renewed attacks by Hamas suicide bombers. While it eliminated a major leader of terrorism, the missile strike almost guarantees that, for now, Israelis will not be better protected, as Bush avers.
What the President overlooks is that the terrorists do not live by the rules of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Whether America brings war to Afghanistan or Iraq is almost immaterial to Osama bin Laden and his followers, who seem to positively revel in the deaths of their coreligionists as much as in the murder of non-Muslims. Against that nihilism, Western logic fails.
If we are in it for the long haul, we will need to address the underlying madness of 'jihad' in its Islamist version of seeking death as the quick route to Paradise. And that means we have to find ways to change the hate-filled teachings of the madrasses and the daily vituperation that spews from much of the Arab media. The most effective way to bring that change would be to convince the Saudi Arabia monarchy that it must stop financing the virulent Wahhabi clerics, and doing that is not going to come from anything as simple as 'early, united and decisive action.'
The President's further insistence that the countries that are not with us are with the terrorists is truly wrong-headed. The world includes a lot of countries that are strong foes of terrorism but strongly disapprove of the President's actions, including the invasion of Iraq. If we drive them away with bullying, 'my way or the highway' rhetoric, we will be losing what can be valuable allies who may well find better routes to stopping terror. The danger of 'early, united and decisive action' is that the action itself may be the wrong course.
We're glad that Saddam Hussein no longer rules Iraq and is no longer funneling money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. But he was not connected to the 9-11 attacks and lacked the weapons of mass destruction that would have made him a global threat. Increasingly, our invasion looks to have been action primarily for the sake of action. More worrisome still, it may well have strengthened rather than weakened the fundamentalist, radical Islamic terrorist movement around the world.
We are going to need flexible policies to deal with the real nuclear threats posed by North Korea and Iran as well as with the continuing incitement that poisons most of the Arab states. There may well be times when strategic retreats, such as the planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, will lessen the likelihood of violence. The world already knows we are strong; we must also prove that we are wise.
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