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WHY NEW YORK?
Why do terrorists keep picking New York? For one thing, the large population of immigrants makes it easier to operate there. For another, they know New York through friends and relatives. . Many middle eastern immigrants spend time in New York, even if they move on to other parts of the country. The city is embedded in the consciousness of many immigrants, especially those who see the west as the center of sin and evil.
It should be understood that terrorism is, sadly, a form of theater. Because of the “success” of the 9-11 attacks, the terrorists need a punctuation mark in New York. They have a need to show they can attack there again, even if it accomplishes nothing. They want to demonstrate that America is vulnerable to attack as a sign of strength to the rest of the world, even if, after careful thought, the attack shows weakness. They also pick New York because it is one of the world’s biggest media centers. Ther terrorists want to watch their work, preferably live, world wide, on CNN.
Another reason is they pick New York is this: they, like many foreigners, mistake New York for America. They believe if they can hit New York hard enough, they will strike a blow that could stop the entire country. This is a joke, a sad joke that, ultimately, is on the terrorists more than on us. At its base, the terrorists pick New York because they are uninformed about America and misunderstand its size and distributed power bases. This is a very large country and it is difficult for a native born person who hasn’t traveled around it widely to grasp its true size. Terrorists watched movies growing up like the rest of the world and many, if not most, movies center on what happens in New York, with a bit of California thrown-in. New York is not America, but how do they know?
After 9-11, the national government, as embodied by Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, et all, wanted all of us to believe that the terrorists were almost all powerful, that they could attack any place in America and could attack again and again. This suited their political and military aims. At no time was the Bush crowd telling the American people of the inherent weakness and ignorance of the terrorists. Their most glaring weakness was that they did not understand the country they were attacking. They assumed that if they hit the two centers of money and governmental power, that would somehow or another force America to change course in the world. They actually believed that 9-11 would cause America to “withdraw from the world stage”.
This was, and is, incredibly naive. It is generally believed the terrorists used two historical events to reach this conclusion: Reagan’s quick withdrawal of American Marines from Lebanon in the 1980s and Clinton’s pullout from Somalia in the 1990s. What they failed to take into account is that America did not have strong interests in either of those countries. In both cases, we were there searching for a mission, not fulfilling one.
America is not ancient Rome. There are dozens, hundreds of cities of importance. Regional centers move money, products and markets many times the value of what happens in New York. The stock market? How much money does the market generate on a given month or year that goes into creating new companies, new jobs and opportunities? The market is about profiting on what has already been funded and established.
Make no mistake, there are many places where a body blow against our economy could be struck, but the current round of terrorists, steeped in hatred of the west and largely pushed into a state of forced ignorance by their own propaganda and anger, don’t know where they are or how to carry out an effective attack. Good. They certainly aren’t going to be able to learn if their attacks are being planned by people even more ignorant and less studious than that of the misguided leadership of 9-11.
It has been reported that the “master mind” of the 9-11 attacks refused even the shake the hand of an American when he attended college in North Carolina. This is pathetic and funny. He was evidentially so blinded by his rage against the western world that he refused to learn about it and, thus, blinded himself to how to effectively attack us. An enemy steeped in his own stew of ignorance is a good one to have, but still dangerous.
We should always bear in mind that what we are facing in “the war on terrorism” is something like trying to fight back against a wild animal. It is unpredictable and, to a large extent, unknowable. We should never attribute, as the Bush people did with regularity, any level of intelligence or knowledge that the terrorists have not demonstrated on their own. We need to find ways to anticipate their ignorance and to help them to destroy themselves.
(combines commentary from an earlier post)
Doug Terry 5.4.10
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