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| The Bloody Coattail of Ostensible Compliance with Terrorism |
| 2004-04-03 |
| Is it just me, or does anyone else think that countries who roll over on a major terrorist issue within days of potential or actual attacks in fact worsen it for everyone else, including themselves? Thailand is openly considering withdrawal from Iraq within days of a huge mining explosives theft by Thai-Malay terrorists. The Thai government should have dilated the time gap between these two events a bit more, even if only for the remaining world’s collective good. So it is with Spain, they should have had the integrity to disconnect any Iraq withdrawal announcement from the Madrid atrocity by a few weeks. (I cannot adequately emphasize how obligatory this was in view of Spain’s previous role with the anti-terror coalition.) In light of all the subsequent bombing attempts, it couldn’t have come out much worse had they waited a while longer. Continued attacks in Spain were a foregone conclusion for anyone with two synapses to rub together. These sort of ill thought out or sometimes wholly unexamined potentials often establish mutually reinforcing probabilities with enough power to leverage popular perception. They can dramatically shift less educated public opinion in ways that dovetail precisely with terrorism’s most basic aims. All such destructive resonance must be intentionally decoupled via discreet and determined interference with the flow of useful proprietary intellegence. Even absent any conspiracy to do so, it remains counterproductive to link events in ways that serve the ends of International terrorism. Failure to comply with even this basic denial of advantage should be duly noted by those actively fighting the war on terror. Wittingly or not, it remains that Spain and Thailand have contributed to terrorism’s prestige by ostensibly altering national policy in direct response to attack or subversive activity. National attention in the form of intense back-channel diplomatic pressure should be directed towards making our concerns about this known overseas. In terms of a solution; I’ll open the bidding and suggest a flat 10% cut from foreign aid for any country whose government refuses to exercise minimal discretion in limiting the "Bloody Coattail" effect. I realize how difficult this is to quantify, interpret or even enforce but it is a distinct factor that needs to be addressed. It would be nice if this debate had enough bandwidth to include the effects of media publicity but that’s not the case. The point still remains that all governments can time official announcements in ways which minimize any positive contribution to terrorism’s image. |
| Posted by:Zenster |