As a Tactic, Terriorism Often Achieves Its Goal

National Post ^ | 6April2002 | Stewart Bell

[Balata]

April 6, 2002

As a tactic, terrorism often achieves its goal It's a horrible truth: Terrorists frequently get what they want

Stewart Bell
National Post

The recent wave of Palestinian suicide bombings and their apparent success at dramatically reshaping the conflict in the Middle East has led analysts to an inescapable but unsettling conclusion: Terrorism works.

The events since Sept. 11 had left the opposite impression. Osama bin Laden gained only misery from his attacks. Al-Qaeda has been severely damaged and the Taliban regime that harboured it is gone.

But the Palestinians have made terror work for them, a disturbing notion, said Shibley Telhami, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, because when a tactic works for one group of terrorists, it is only a matter of time before another copies or even improves it.

As U.S. envoy General Anthony Zinni was trying to negotiate a ceasefire in the Middle East last week, Palestinian extremists were trying to keep the violence going, fearing a break in hostilities would stall their campaign to destroy Israel.

Their weapon was Abdel Baset Odeh. The 25-year-old strapped 18 kilos of explosives to his body, walked into a hotel in Netanya and blew himself up in a banquet hall where more than 200 people were celebrating the start of the Jewish Passover.

It was classic guerrilla strategy, and it worked. The ceasefire talks fell apart and Israeli troops poured into Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin, allowing the Palestinians to play the role of victim and win the sympathy of the Arab world. Within a week, even the U.S. was urging Israeli restraint. "That," a satisfied Hamas leader later told The New York Times, "was a great success."

Yasser Arafat is hardly the first to have used terror successfully. Terrorism helped the Russian revolutionaries seize power. It helped the Serbs win an independent Yugoslavia and later helped the Croats carve a piece out of Yugoslavia. African anti-colonial forces, including Nelson Mandella's African National Congress, used guerrilla-terror tactics early on before transforming themselves into peaceful political movements.

"What seems key is to use terror effectively in order to weaken the opponent's regime on the one hand, while mobilizing outside political support for the cause (or against the opponent) on the other," said Professor Martin Rudner, director of the Centre for Security and Defence Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa.

"The successful terrorism was that which targeted government institutions, personalities and symbols, rather than civilians. This targeted terrorism demonstrated government's incapacity to defend itself, and this in turn undermined its legitimacy."

The success of any terror campaign obviously depends on what the terrorists have set out to achieve. The leftist terrorism of the 1970s that aimed to foment worldwide socialist revolution was no more successful than the terrorism of the past decade that has tried to promote worldwide Islamic revolution. When the goals are too far-fetched, they are doomed from the start.

Terrorism succeeds where its goals are more modest, such as bringing attention to an unknown cause or generating a sense of public insecurity that puts pressure on a government to deal with an issue.

Used tactfully, it can also bait a government into responding with force, such as the current Israeli incursions into Palestinian-controlled cities. With a series of well-timed hit-and-run attacks, terrorist groups can draw their opponent into hitting back, which only serves to broaden their membership and outside backing.

The Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka used this technique masterfully. They would detonate a bomb in the capital Colombo, then await the inevitable mass arrests of ethnic Tamils by security forces. But that just drove more militants into the arms of the Tigers. The PKK, the Kurdish separatist party in Turkey, used the same strategy, as did the IRA. So, for that matter, did the FLQ.

What all these terrorist movements have in common, however, is that none of them achieved their main objectives. The PKK failed to win independence for ethnic Kurds in Turkey. The FLQ did not get a separate Quebec. The Tamil Tigers have dropped their demand for a separate ethnic Tamil nation.

"Terrorism doesn't work in any lasting political sense," said Wesley Wark, a University of Toronto history professor specializing in intelligence issues. "But it can alter the dynamics of international relations and force attention to issues that might not otherwise be at the top of the international agenda.

"That said, even when issues are forced to a position of greater prominence by terrorist acts, this is vastly different from a process whereby the terrorists achieve their objectives. Terrorism generally boomerangs on its perpetrators, bringing military, political and economic retaliation, and also, in the baggage, racial and cultural stereotyping."

When retaliation against terrorism is forceful, it feeds the cause, but when the response is too weak, it encourages more attacks. When the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by al-Qaeda in 1998, the White House launched cruise missiles at empty training camps in Afghanistan and at a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant. This less than impressive return of fire from the world's most powerful military machine may have well convinced bin Laden that the U.S. was weak and unable to shoot back effectively.

The victims of terrorism may be in an untenable position: Respond and they pay the price, or don't respond and pay the price. Those who engage in terrorism seem to win either way.

[Balata]

Terrorist acts demand strong overwhelming responses!

[Dr. Frank fan]

Yasser Arafat is hardly the first to have used terror successfully. Terrorism helped the Russian revolutionaries seize power. [...] "Terrorism doesn't work in any lasting political sense," said Wesley Wark, a University of Toronto history professor specializing in intelligence issues.

Uh, which is it? Does terrorism work or not?

USSR lasted a pretty darn long time if you ask me. Perhaps Professor Wark takes the long view....

[Balata]

Ah...the exceptions!

[Balata]

Uh, which is it? Does terrorism work or not?

I would have to go with the title. "As a Tactic, Terriorism Often Achieves Its Goal."

[MeekOneGOP]

Gee, I could say that the Palestinian suicide bombers aren't people but are more like wild animals,
but that would be a high insult to animals everywhere...........

Chairman Arafat
Mark Steyn Link Excerpt:

Just as revealing was the reaction from the European media. In the American press, you read things like: "An observer to the bomb-blast scene described a dead young girl, perhaps 10 or 12, lying on the ground with her eyes open, looking as if she was surprised." For Europe, on the other hand, the main significance of this development was that it was "unhelpful" to the "peace process". Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs. It's not that I place less value on Palestinian lives, but that Chairman Arafat and his chums in Hamas do. So does Saddam Hussein, whose government (the subject of an admiring article in this week's Spectator) gives $25,000 to the family of each Palestinian suicide bomber. So does the Arab League, which at last year's summit passed a resolution hailing the "spirit of sacrifice" of the Palestinian "martyrs" and thus licensed Wednesday's massacre. As for the "peace process", those Europeans who, just a few months ago, were urging the Americans to cease operations for Ramadan evidently feel no compunction to demand from Chairman Arafat and his dark subsidiaries any similar "bombing pause" for Passover.

In the days after September 11, we were told that Muslims had great respect for their fellow "people of the book" - ie, Jews and Christians. This ought to be so: after all, the dramatis personae of the Koran include Abraham, Moses, David, John the Baptist, Jesus and the Virgin Mary. It's one thing to believe that the Israelis are occupiers and oppressors and that the Zionist state should not exist. But no Muslim with any understanding of his shared heritage could in good conscience blow up a Passover Seder. It marks a new low in the Palestinians' descent into nihilism - though, as usual, the silence of the imams is deafening. As for the nonchalance of the Europeans, that too should not surprise us: in my experience, the Continent's Christians, practising and nominal, find the ceremonies of Jewish life faintly creepy, notwithstanding that these were also the rituals by which their own Saviour lived.

But this year, when the Christians' solar calendar and the Jews' lunar calendar have coincided and Easter and Passover fall together, it's a safe bet that George W Bush will make the connection. The first time I ever heard him speak, he spoke openly about his faith and about Christ in a way that would be unimaginable for a British politician. He will know all the details - "the baby tried to crawl away, but it died, too".......................

[MeekOneGOP]

Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs.

[MeekOneGOP]

A LETTER FROM ISRAEL
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/focus/news/658193/posts

[Balata]

As for the "peace process", those Europeans who, just a few months ago, were urging the Americans to cease operations for Ramadan evidently feel no compunction to demand from Chairman Arafat and his dark subsidiaries any similar "bombing pause" for Passover.

Truer words were never spoken. After Iraq, I think we should head to France. ;^)

[Balata]

I read that letter, it was awsome. True words spoken from the heart by a Doctor who has lived it.

[Balata]

Thanks for your posts.

The picture of the kid with explosives reminds me of an interview I heard with Netanyahu today. He said once the PA cornered the 13 Israel soldiers today they then sent in a young suicide bomber who was only 10-12 years old because they knew the Israel soldiers wouldn't shoot the kid.

Sad, Sad, Sad.

[MeekOneGOP]

Isn't it though? It makes my blood boil, too, when I see these pro-Palestinian faces on TV
crying and spinning about how the Palestinians are victimized by the Israelis and refer to the
suicide attacks as the same thing that Israeli is doing in their incursion to stop them! G-r-r-r!........

[MeekOneGOP]

Sorry for the rant there. Thanks to you for posting this article!.........

[Balata]

Would you do one of your famous pings? It would be greatly appreciated. Would you also add me to your ping list? Thanks.

[MeekOneGOP]

As a Tactic, Terriorism Often Achieves Its Goal

Excerpt:

The recent wave of Palestinian suicide bombings and their apparent success at dramatically reshaping the conflict in the Middle East has led analysts to an inescapable but unsettling conclusion: Terrorism works.

The events since Sept. 11 had left the opposite impression. Osama bin Laden gained only misery from his attacks. Al-Qaeda has been severely damaged and the Taliban regime that harboured it is gone.

But the Palestinians have made terror work for them, a disturbing notion, said Shibley Telhami, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, because when a tactic works for one group of terrorists, it is only a matter of time before another copies or even improves it.

As U.S. envoy General Anthony Zinni was trying to negotiate a ceasefire in the Middle East last week, Palestinian extremists were trying to keep the violence going, fearing a break in hostilities would stall their campaign to destroy Israel.

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[MeekOneGOP]

Sure thing, and you're added. I'm off to Bally's for my morning workout. See ya'll shortly.......

[Balata]

Thanks, much appreciated.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

If you notice the successes and failures of terrorism you will see that not once has a majority population in a national territory been destroyed by terrorism. It was a relatively close thing in South Africa, where the whites were about a 10 to 1 minority.

[RottiBiz]

What all these terrorist movements have in common, however, is that none of them achieved their main objectives. The PKK failed to win independence for ethnic Kurds in Turkey. The FLQ did not get a separate Quebec. The Tamil Tigers have dropped their demand for a separate ethnic Tamil nation.

It would seem that terrorism more often than not "awakens sleeping giants." I don't think that is the goal they had in mind.

Thanks for a very interesting article, Balata, and for the ping MnM.

[Lazamataz]

As a Tactic, Terriorism Often Achieves Its Goal

Yeah? Well, I personally, and I suspect much of Israel, now realizes any statehood for Palestinians is a huge mistake. Imagine the terror they will create if they had a whole nation, replete with a military, passporting capabilities, and so on! If the hardening of your opponents resolve is your goal, the Palestinians succeeded wildly.

JUST SAY NO TO PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD.