Travel is educational.
Recently, I have crossed the Atlantic six times, making three trips
to three different European cities. I've learned two things: (1)
international air travel is about one step up from riding a cattle
car, and (2) Europeans still don't get the war on terror.
Five years after 9/11, many Europeans argue the best way to deal
with terrorism is to deploy cadres of cops, intelligence analysts,
public relations specialists and social workers. Calling it a
"war," they argue, only "antagonizes" the peoples and places that
produce terrorists, thus making it harder to address the root
causes.
Many Europeans also fear that labeling the hunt for terrorists a
"war" gives America a "license to kill" -- unleashing the
Pentagon's unchecked military power on a defenseless world, like
some kind of Mongol horde.
The European desire to debate words is more about fighting a silly
semantic battle to constrain American power than a serious exercise
in stopping terrorism. And it is just flat unproductive -- in part,
because it is not a real debate.
The United States has never contended that terrorists can be
fought with armies alone, by unilateral U.S. strategies, or by
ignoring the rule of law. Some Europeans may take issue with how
America deals with unlawful combatants, how we gather information
or how we attempt to discredit terrorist ideologies. But none of
those policy differences will be solved by simply banning the word
"war." They can be addressed only by serious discussions that
recognize we have common interests and goals: keeping terrorism
from becoming a transnational corporate enterprise.
Simply put, terrorists are trying to kill us. We must stop them.
We should invest our energies in deciding the best ways to do that,
not in arguing over terminology.
There's another, far more important reason not to shrink from
calling the war a war. Denying we're at war with the terrorists may
actually encourage terrorism. While Europeans feel that
talk of war is "antagonizing," the terrorists believe that those
unwilling to fight a war display a lack of honor -- even
cowardice.
The Western conception of honor is colored by generations of
Judeo-Christian heritage that have fused it with notions of
morality, virtue and principles. Bin Laden's concept of honor is
untainted by gentlemanly Western values. It draws on a more
traditional and fundamental concept of honor, one that remains
prevalent outside the Western world.
To terrorists, honor is simply maintaining (through deeds and
words) the good opinion of people that matter -- whether it is the
family, tribe, village or larger groups. "Honor" killings and
rapes, for example, are honorable acts because they restore the
status of the family or individual in the community.
Bin Laden and his ilk certainly think they're honorable -- despite
the fact that what they do is illegal, immoral and heretical. And
they certainly believe they're at war with us.
Their perversion of a legitimate religious obligation described in
the Koran as jihad essentially calls for their followers
to make war on anyone who doesn't subscribe to their authority. In
their twisted world of ideas, they believe they're performing an
honorable act -- recovering the good name of their people who have
been assaulted by Western perversions like sexual equality,
democracy and secularism.
If the West refuses to engage in "war," it signals to our enemies
that we lack the courage and strength to defend our own culture and
ideas. That would confirm for bin Laden and others that modern
Western ways are corrupt and devoid of honor. And it would reaffirm
al Qaeda's belief in its own propaganda, which says Western nations
are a "paper tiger." A lack of resolve invites, rather than deters,
aggression.
To beat bin Laden, we must convince him that we are warriors -- as
fierce and determined as he -- and convince the non-Western world
that what we stand for is honorable and worth fighting for.
We must also make a sincere effort to convince ethnic groups,
countries and religious sects that we are not at war with
them. They are not our enemies; only those who try to kill
us are.
We can win the long war by fighting it the right way, the
honorable way. But we cannot win by denying we are at war with
murderers intent on slaughtering innocents.
Too many Europeans remain reluctant to acknowledge the hard truth
that there is a war to be won and they are in it. Their denial only
emboldens our common enemy.
James
Carafano is Senior Research
Fellow for National Security and Homeland Security at The Heritage
Foundation (heritage.org), and author of the new book "G.I.
Ingenuity."
Distributed nationally on the McClatchy Tribune wire