During the 45 years of the "cold war", American troops were getting killed in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Lebanon, Iran, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Cuba, and yes, even the Soviet Union. In all, over 100,000 American troops were killed. Meanwhile, schools were practicing air raid drills and people were building and stocking fallout shelters. And all of this fear, worry and death was in the name of stopping the Communists from attacking us.In the current wars, over 2,000 Americans have been killed in just two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan. Today's fallout shelters take the form of cement blocks in front of office buildings and churches. We even have a new "Department of Homeland Security" which tells us to prepare survival kits with food, water, flashlights - basically the same things we used to put in our fallout shelters. And all of this - fear, worry and death - is in the name of stopping Terrorists from attacking us.
How long will this "cold war" last? Will it be another two generations before we can crawl out from under our cement-block hidey holes? And when we do crawl out, how long will it be before some new vague "threat" pushes us back into hiding, creating more fear, worry and death?
It turns out that the "threat" of Communism was horribly overblown by what President Eisenhower called the "military-industrial complex." Official estimates of Soviet military capabilities were grossly exaggerated, despite the clear evidence presented by our spy satellites. When the Iron Curtain finally crumbled, it was not, as some right-wingers would have us believe, because we destroyed it. The massive inefficiency of the Soviet Union, amplified by its postwar empire, was a doomed system all by itself.
We are discovering, slowly, that the "threat" of Terrorism is being similarly overblown. The signs are cropping up all over the place.
The first sign was the continual attempt by the Bush administration to link Saddam Hussein to the September 11th attacks. The short-term result was our invasion and occupation of a country that, it turns out, was never a threat to us. The long-term result is a quagmire in which 2,000 Americans have died, and an even larger terrorist threat.
The second sign was the virtual demise of those color bars. They're still officially in use, but nobody pays any attention to them.
The third sign is the constant barrage of "specific threats" which turn out to be phony. Most recently, New York City subway riders were forced to endure extra personal invasions by police, all in the name of "security", even though the "specific threat" was a hoax. More and more warnings go out, only to be withdrawn when a closer look at the facts proves there was nothing to worry about.
At some point, we will have to come to grips with the fact that our government lied to us. We will have to face up to the inevitable conclusion that there is a better way to deal with terrorism than cement blocks and bag searches. In order to defeat terrorism, we must do three things.
First, we must stop acting like the schoolyard bully on the world stage. Yes, we are the lone remaining superpower - for now - but even the schoolyard bully can be beaten up if enough people gang up on him. Our foreign policy should be based on leading by example and not just by force. We must provide financial support to countries that want to build diverse economies without trying to force our systems on them. A new, worldwide Marshall-type plan would make us more friends and fewer enemies, it would remove the reasons for terrorists to exist, and we would be able to get even more accomplished without all the bloodshed.
Second, we have to stop pretending that phony security measures have any effect at all. We must redirect our efforts away from feeling safer and toward actually being safer. Requiring photo IDs in office buildings is ridiculous; terrorists will simply get fake ones. Putting up concrete barriers just makes it harder to walk down the sidewalk. Searching some people's bags in some places is only a nuisance - and an unconstitutional nuisance at that - and won't catch, stop, deter or materially delay even one terrorist.
Third, we must stop funding terrorism. Currently, America imports eleven million barrels of oil a day. Most of that oil comes from countries, like Saudi Arabia, that send our money to terrorist groups. We must become energy independent. Higher mileage standards for cars and trucks should be implemented immediately; the technology already exists to meet those standards. Funding to develop and use alternate energy sources should be increased. A new tax on imported oil from countries that either fund terrorists or do not hold free elections would shift imports from Arab states to countries like México, Venezuela and Russia, and would be a good short-term strategy.
By following these three steps, we remove the causes that terrorists espouse, meet real threats head-on, and cut off major funding to terrorist groups. This will reduce significantly the danger to Americans, make us more self-sufficient, lower the trade deficit, free up billions of dollars to add to economic development - in short, make us all safer and more prosperous.
Copyright 2005, Dan Jacoby
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