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IP: LA Times: The Lessons of Blowback
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2001 14:09:02 -0400
Sender: rberger () imap ultradevices com Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2001 11:01:04 -0700 From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger () ultradevices com> http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/suncommentary/la-000078169sep30.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dsuncomment The Lessons of Blowback September 30, 2001 Even carefully planned actions can have unintended consequences. Let's not do something that ultimately benefits terrorists. By CHALMERS JOHNSON, Chalmers Johnson is author of "Revolutionary Change" and "Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire." SAN DIEGO -- One of the objectives of terrorism is to provoke the ruling elites of a target regime into disastrous overreaction. When it works, as it has in Israel over the past year, the results can be devastating for all sides. Who does this ultimately benefit? The terrorists. Carlos Marighella, the Brazilian guerrilla leader whose writings influenced political terrorists in the 1960s and 1970s, explained why. If the government can be provoked into a military response to terrorism, he wrote, this will alienate the masses, causing them to "revolt against the army and the police and blame them for this state of things." The overreaction doesn't necessarily have to alienate only domestic "masses." If we inflict great misery on innocent people in the Middle East, there will almost certainly be what the CIA refers to as "blowback"--unintended negative consequences of our actions. Vacillating supporters of the terrorists might be drawn into committing terrorist acts. Moderate governments throughout the Islamic world, especially in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, would almost certainly face growing internal dissent and could even be overthrown. Perhaps the prime example of terrorism succeeding is the Philippeville massacre of Aug. 20, 1955, in which Algerian revolutionaries killed 123 French colonials. A conscious act of terrorism carried out by revolutionaries who until then had enjoyed only slight popular backing, the Philippeville massacre led to a massive and bloody retaliation by the French. It also converted a leading French reformer (Jacques Soustelle, then governor-general of Algeria) into an advocate of suppression. The French crackdown eliminated most of the moderates on the Muslim side and caused influential French citizens back home to turn against their country's policies. This chain of events ultimately provoked a French army mutiny, brought Gen. Charles de Gaulle back to power as the savior of the nation and caused a French withdrawal from Algeria. Franco-Algerian relations are still strained today. No political cause can justify the killing on Sept. 11 of thousands of innocent people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. But neither would our killing innocent people in retaliation be justifiable. Terrorists attack the vulnerable because their intended targets (the military might of a rich country) are inaccessible. By attacking the innocent, terrorists intend to draw attention to the sins of the invulnerable. Like the anarchism of the 19th century, terrorism is propaganda by deed. <snip> -- Robert J. Berger - UltraDevices, Inc. 257 Castro Street, Suite 223 Mt. View CA. 94041 Voice: 650-237-0334 VoiceMail: 408-882-4755 Fax: 408-490-2868 Email: rberger () ultradevices com http://www.ultradevices.com
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- IP: LA Times: The Lessons of Blowback David Farber (Oct 01)