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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 05:48pm Sep 18, 2001 EST (#9404 of 9408)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

"It's worth recalling the U.S. response to the bombing of a Berlin disco in April 1986, which resulted in the deaths of two U.S. service members: The U.S. immediately bombed Libya, which it blamed for the attack. According to Libya, 36 civilians were killed in the air assault, including the year-old daughter of Libyan leader Moamar Khadafy (Washington Post, 5/9/86). It is unlikely that Libyans considered this a "pinprick." Yet these deaths apparently had little deterrence value: In December 1988, less than 20 months later, Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in an even deadlier act of terrorism the U.S. blames on Libyan agents.

" More recently, in 1998, Bill Clinton sent 60 cruise missiles, some equipped with cluster bombs, against bin Laden's Afghan base, in what was presented as retaliation for the bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa. One missile aimed at Afghan training camps landed hundreds of miles off course in Pakistan, while a simultaneous attack in Sudan leveled one of the country's few pharmaceutical factories. Media cheered the attacks (In These Times, 9/6/98), though careful investigation into the case revealed no credible evidence linking the plant to chemical weapons or Osama bin Laden, the two justifications offered for the attack (New York Times, 10/27/99, London Observer, 8/23/98).

" Despite the dubious record of retributory violence in insuring security, many pundits insist that previous retaliation failed only because it was not severe enough.

"As the Chicago Tribune's John Kass declared (9/13/01),

" For the past decade we've sat dumb and stupid as the U.S. military was transformed from a killing machine into a playpen for sociologists and political schemers."

This "playpen" dropped 23,000 bombs on Yugoslavia in 1999, killing between 500 and 1,500 civilians, and may have killed as many as 1,200 Iraqis in 1998's Desert Fox attack (Agence France Presse, 12/23/98).

rshowalter - 05:48pm Sep 18, 2001 EST (#9405 of 9408)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The Wall Street Journal (9/13/01) urged the U.S. to "get serious" about terrorism by, among other things, eliminating "the 1995 rule, imposed by former CIA Director John Deutsch under political pressure, limiting whom the U.S. can recruit for counter-terrorism. For fear of hiring rogues, the CIA decided it would only hire Boy Scouts."

One non-Boy Scout the CIA worked with in the 1980s is none other than Osama bin Laden (MSNBC, 8/24/98; The Atlantic, 7-8/01)-- then considered a valuable asset in the fight against Communism, but now suspected of being the chief instigator of the World Trade Center attacks.

" Who's to Blame?

"In crisis situations, particularly those involving terrorism, media often report unsubstantiated information about suspects or those claiming responsibility-- an error that is especially dangerous in the midst of calls for military retaliation.

"Early reports on the morning of the attack indicated that the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine had claimed responsibility on Abu Dhabi Television. Most outlets were careful with the information, though NBC's Tom Brokaw, while not confirming the story, added fuel to the fire: "This comes, ironically, on a day when the Israel Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is scheduled to meet with Yasser Arafat. Of course, we've had the meeting in South Africa for the past several days in which the Palestinians were accusing the Israelis of racism"-- as if making such an accusation were tantamount to blowing up the World Trade Center.

"Hours after a spokesperson for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine denied any responsibility for the attack, the Drudge Report website still had the headline "Palestinian Group Says Responsible" at the top of the page.

"Though the threat from a Palestinian group proved unsubstantiated, that did not stop media from making gross generalizations about Arabs and Islam in general. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wondered (9/13/01): "Surely Islam, a grand religion that never perpetrated the sort of Holocaust against the Jews in its midst that Europe did, is being distorted when it is treated as a guidebook for suicide bombing. How is it that not a single Muslim leader will say that?"

" Of course, many Muslims would-- and did-- say just that. Political and civil leaders throughout the Muslim world have condemned the attacks, and Muslim clerics throughout the Middle East have given sermons refuting the idea that targeting civilians is a tenet of Islam (BBC, 9/14/01; Washington Post 9/17/01).

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