As the first phase of the Afghan adventure draws to a close, I find that I am surprised at how well President Bush has managed thus far to keep his "war on terrorism" on track. Again a lackluster American president has risen to the occasion. Nevertheless, I am worried that, in spite of President Bush's assurances, the United States will "cut and run" when the easy part of the Afghan adventure is concluded. Will we be able to "walk the walk" as well as we "talk the talk?"
The whole Muslim world will be watching us. This war on terrorism could so easily spark the greatest religious war since 1270, when the Crusade engineered by Charles d'Anjou ended in disaster at Tunis, including the death of his brother, Saint Louis, who had earlier in life made a vow to deliver Jerusalem from the control of the Mussulmans.
I am also worried that the enterprise will be subverted by those, most notably the Israelis but to a lesser extent also the Russians and the Indians, who cloak their own political machinations in the language of the war on terrorism. One should never forget that Palestinian, Chechnyan and Kashmiri self-determination are at stake. Let us not help others crush legitimate aspirations in the name of anti-terrorism!
Sometimes the "terrorism" of today is equated to the anti-government "anarchism" of yesteryear, but the most egregious examples of terrorism have been acts that were perpetrated by states. The Reign of Terror that began in 1792 with the proclamation of the French Republic and the beheading of Louis XVI was no work of anarchists. Lopping off thirty or forty heads per day was no less terrible and no more justifiable for its having been carried out by the State. Terror is terror regardless of who carries it out, Hitler's Nazis executing the "final solution of the Jewish problem" or a lone student using a gun to terrorize his high school classmates and teachers!
Perhaps the most surprising thing about the destruction of the World Trade Center is that this monstrous act of barbarism was not carried out by a state, but only facilitated by a poor excuse for a state. We have now destroyed that pitiful state, and it remains to be seen what will be created in its place. I hope for nothing less than that we shall cause to be created a model modern Muslim state which all other Muslim states great and small will aspire to emulate, and that this in time will defuse anti-Americanism throughout the Muslim world. I fear that our president may be diverted from this objective as he pursues further his war on terrorism.