The Logic Of Terrorism: Partial Lessons From The Great War

War between the Great Powers was much talked about in the first decade of the twentieth century, by politicians, writers, novelists, and philosophers. Yet the nature of a European war, as opposed to a colonial venture, was little understood. What was known were the many swift forays by superior forces against distant, feeble foes, the victory of machine guns against spears, of massive naval guns against antique cannon. However frightening those conflicts could be for those who took part in them, the general public at home had little sense of anything terrible. [Emphasis Added].

~ Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History (1994), 1.

One of the keys to maintaining perpetual war (and perpetual profit to the war profiteers) is to make sure that you prosecute your wars at a safe distance from the homeland. In the 1960s, the Pentagon was reasonably sure that Vietnam was a safe bet, owing to its size, relatively underdeveloped society, and distance from the U.S. For reasons that are still unclear, however, the usually supine and war-promoting media (war profiteers themselves) did not cooperate. Perhaps they discovered a large, untapped market that held anti-war sentiments--the rising bubble of the Baby Boom. Whatever the reason, by the 1991 invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon had made certain to turn the Fourth Estate into their willing propaganda arm once more. Neither party has ever looked back.

Those who engage in acts of terror on foreign soil perceive the insulation of the general public of the countries responsible for perpetual war from its horrors; quite logically, they attempt to bring that war "home" to that ignorant general public. What they fail to appreciate, however, is that the Pentagon is in charge of the media-delivered narrative--a narrative in which a disconnect is carefully maintained between terrorist atrocities and their war-without-end. Holding only one end of the stick, those who desire to "educate" benighted foreign publics are incapable of breaking that stick. And with each act of terror they play into the hands of the war-mongers and profiteers.

The so-called Great War took place when the war-mongers and profiteers of Europe turned upon each other in a frenzy to divide the spoils of more than a century's worth of imperialist conquest. Something of a similar nature will have to occur before the present victims of the Pentagon's perpetual wars will find much in the way of relief.