October 2, 2001
Kamloops Daily News



"Think hard about it.  I'm running out of demons.  I'm
running out of villains," said Colin Powell a decade ago
when he was General of American forces.  He was wondering
out loud whether the US needed such a large army after the
fall of Soviet Russia.  What's the point of having the
world's greatest military power and no dark forces to fight?

Soviet Russia fell with a little help from US friends in
Afghanistan. They were the freedom fighters called the
Mujahedeen.  Muslims from all over the Islamic world had
gathered in Afghanistan to fight a holy war against the
communist Russian invaders.  And the US provided some
firepower.

"We could no longer allow these people to walk into
martyrdom but we had to give them something that might in
fact allow them to win," said Milt Beardon, former Director
of the CIA.  That something was the ground-to-air guided
mistle, the Stinger. It instantly gave the Muslim freedom
fighters an advantage.  Russian helicopters didn't know what
hit them.							

There is no lack of demons and villains now.  Not after the
kamikaze attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon
three weeks ago. No one now suggests a reduction in US
military power.  

Colin Powell, now a politician and Secretary of State has a
different battle on his hands.  There is pressure to do
something but the former general knows that it would be a
mistake to act without a clear goal.  To act in haste would
be worst than not acting at all.

The US has to been seen to be doing something without doing
anything hasty. That's why there are 15,00 US troops in the
area with no immediate military strikes.  It's a manoeuver
to buy time.

Powell understands that control of language and its meaning
is the basis for influence and power.  Wars are won in
thoughts and ideology before they are fought by soldiers on
the battlefield.  Powell must shape the ideas of a coherent
military plan in the minds of Americans.

And Secretary of State Powell must guide his inexperienced
President through a political minefield.   Public sentiment
is on president Bush's side but a ground war (if that's the
plan) would be dirty, bloody and protracted.  It took a few
weeks, but President Bush has figured out what to call the
military offensive.

Bush first suggested "Operation Infinite Justice".  It has a
nice ring to it,  as good as George Bush senior's "Desert
Storm".  The word "infinite" correctly suggests it's going
to be a long battle. The problem is that in the Islamic
faith only Allah can provide infinite justice.  So now 
15,000 soldiers are involved in "Operation Enduring
Freedom".

Calling the military incursion a "Crusade" would also bad
idea.  In the Arab mind, it conjures up images of Christians
marching in to save "holy lands" from the Arab infidels. 
That's just what terrorist leader Osama bin Laden wants.  He
wants to provoke a holy war between Christians and Muslims
-- a war in which he is sure that Muslims will win.

This is an enemy who is very savvy about operating in a
globalized world, says Fareed Zakaria, foreign correspondent
for Newsweek Magazine. "They have, in many ways, the
hallmarks of good, globalized corporations. They are lean,
they're flexible, they don't require a great deal of money.
They're catalysts, for the most part, and their greatest
strength is their intellectual organization."

To defeat such an enemy at war, American soldiers must have
the same resolve as Osama bin Laden's soldiers.  They must
be prepared to spend years infiltrating the enemy's culture;
learning their language, training at their schools, probing
their weaknesses, and be ready to die for the righteousness
of their cause.    

It's a war determined by an enemy who has virtually no
resources but are willing to give up their lives.  They have
no weapons, they turn our own technology against us.  Bin
Laden's soldiers are not even an army, they are more like a
cancer that eats from within and dies with its host.

Secretary of State Powell has to respond to unspeakable acts
of horror with a speakable plan of retaliation.  The plan
must be one of managed impatience, one of hurry up and wait.

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