Posted by Runa on September 15, 2001, at 23:14:59
Calls for revenge, fueled by anger, compel American leaders to pursue a military campaign against whoever stands behind or beside those who killed themselves and thousands more in New York and Washington D.C. last week. Political leaders console the American public with promises of a military reaction, which is no doubt in some way necessary to preserve the public peace and safety.
A military action will not solve this problem, though. Leaders try to point at a group responsible, which in this circumstance is only partially true. What we are facing is a public health crisis. What we saw was a mass suicide. Such suicides might be inspired or directed by a strong leader but can as easily be self-initiated, with equally tragic consequence. As such, it can never become purely a political and military problem. Unlike the kamikaze attacks of WWII, this was not suicide committed as part of a military strategy. These acts were perpetrated as part of a psychological strategy. In this case, there was no effort to deliver a message; there were no demands, no claims of responsibility. Whatever the intent, the primary effect of this attack was to provoke. As such, the anger of Americans, fueled by pride, becomes a weapon that can explode in the heart of America. If not contained, this anger can turn the world against America - it can provoke parts of the world far more populous than the industrialized nations.
More than that, society faces a crisis of suicide. People become so frustrated with a way of life, they take there own lives and countless others. It is not limited to bin Laden's trainees, nor to other cells in neo-colonial Arabian states. The crisis, described as a syndrome of suicide combined with fratricide against our human family, includes numerous notorious incidents - Columbine, Oklahoma City (where one bomber surrendered to his executioners saying he is the master of his fate), countless workplace killings too soon forgotten because of their sheer frequency, an endless list of domestic violence deaths in which the perpetrators killed themselves along with their victims … Jonestown … Heavan's Gate … Waco. The political implication of recent events beg us to forget the psychological implications and the medical classification of the acts that caused the mayhem.
If this disease continues to spread, containing "terrorism" will do little to stop the infection. Frustrated youngsters, former soldiers, tired workers, lonely hearts or confused political activists all can loose their bearings in a world where mass death becomes a norm. The self-immolation by Bhuddist monks during the Vietnam conflict, the recent mass self-mutilations by protesters in Japan and self-immolations in China suggest what forms this disease may take. Security experts must countenance what we dare not explore - the seemingly endless list of potential targets that present opportunity to a person or group intent on making a statement in death they could not get across in life.
What can the community of mental health care-givers do? We must assess and be prepared to intervene in social trends that will inevitably push some individuals to desperate measures. Intervention, in the refugee camps of Palestine, in the seething cities if the Middle East, and in countless Asian communities, cannot be delivered in pill form. Cultural forces effect individuals, and we must learn to help direct those forces in such a way that will protect us from the individuals who feel damaged by cultural trends, and that will protect individuals from the unchecked ambitions of society.
Secondly, in efforts to contain the political forces that are at the front of this infection, we must not send nurses to do a surgeon's job. If we send young soldiers on loosely directed search and kill missions, we will find ourselves facing the rage both of their victims kin and of a few soldiers themselves who cannot contain the hatred we authorize in our marching orders. Hating America is not a capital crime, and soldiers are not qualified to become a law unto themselves. We must order soldiers to search for and rescue psychological survivors as intently as rescue workers seek survivors in the rubble of these collapsed buildings. We must tread as carefully as if we are climbing on the loosely piled rubble.
America will not win this war by force alone. For sure, there are probably some people that, for lack of a better strategy, will be killed. That is war. But we must not let our compassion die. We must not tolerate the massacre of innocents under the guise of military justice, the military application of torture or the execution of prisoners. We must uphold the rules of war if we hope to persuade others to act mercifully.
The western world survived the Cold War by promising to do what we saw done to New York this week. We maintained a balance of terror and were prepared to kill exponentially more civilians, destroying entire cities if we felt sufficiently threatened. We never promised to not strike first. We targeted civilians in previous wars. We firebombed cities when military targets were otherwise available. We are not above this kind of act.
The perpetrators of this act seem to believe themselves to have been in a protracted war over the past 50 years, fighting against forces that often resorted to terror. Under the leadership of a future national prime minister, 91 people died in the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. The Arabian people's account of terror committed against them continues with a litany that continued for decades and continued until the days before the attack in New York. Does that justify anything? No. Does it make further terror and counter-terror likely? Yes.
If we hold a concept of evil, what we have witnessed this week was indeed an evil act. Western nations have at times resorted to evil, too. We repented. Let us beg our enemies to join us in repentance. The net result of most wars is that enemies become more like each other. Let us move quickly toward mutual understanding. Let us not utter words of war without also speaking of peace. We only recovered from the wars of the 20th century because of our compassion and forgiveness. We must enter this war with the same spirit, or our culture might not survive. In the words of a reformed Israeli human rights violator who lived and died almost 2000 years ago, we battle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and spiritual corruption in high places.
poster:Runa
thread:11416
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010915/msgs/11416.html