European Perspectives On Terrorism

23. May 2008 by Dan Verton.

by Michael Burleigh

Copyright Foreign Policy Research Institute

HISTORY AND POLICY
“History” crops  up a  lot in  our  conflicts  with  violent jihadists.  A   war  on  terror  was  proclaimed,  and  then rejected,  because   the  term   was  belatedly   deemed  as
descriptively meaningless  as a  “war on  Blitzkrieg” and as futile as  a “war  on drugs.”  Among alternatives  that have been put  forward are  “the long  war,”  “the  first  global
terrorist war,”  the counter  campaign against  the  “global jihadist  insurgency,”   and  an   “anti-Islamic  extremism” battle.

Commentators and  politicians seek  to give  our opponents a historically familiar face by substituting steel helmets for the chequered  keffiyahs and  turbans. We  have heard  about “Islamofascism” and  “Islamobolshevism,” both of which terms risk boxing  our thinking  into the  past even  as they give needless offense  to  Muslims  by  claiming  that  they  are latter-day Nazis.

Since we  are also  engaged in  a “war of hearts and minds,” there has  been much talk of a Cold War, running parallel to three wars–in  Afghanistan, Iraq  and against  the  “global
jihadist insurgency.”  As an  American commentator  recently wrote in  Foreign Affairs, if we take 9/11 as the equivalent of 1947,  we are  only six  years into  a struggle  that may
abate in 2043 if our descendants are fortunate.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Foreign Policy, Europe, al-Qaeda, Gloabl War on Terror | Print | 1 Comment »