Oh the savage wars of peace rage on! Evil is being routed out of caves, jungles and refugee camps. Each day, the United States sends more arms and technical support to governments dealing with rebel insurgencies, primarily those of the Islamic branch. With the latest in anti-terror technology, the ringleaders of badness are being pinpointed, apprehended and terminated. It would seem that any day now, the evil must run out.
Of course, the hysterical assumption is that evil is static, existing as a fixed number, and that with six bullets, six bad people can be reduced to zero. Such is the methodology of the War on Terror, a war that has been adamantly adopted by the Israeli government.
Very fed up with the terrorist activity of various militant Palestinian groups, Ariel Sharon has launched a war on the 22 percent remnants of the pre-1967 Palestine - the rest of which remains under Israeli occupation, despite United Nations' opposition.
With renewed vigor, the Kipling war of peace has reawakened in the public relations departments of the American and Israeli governments. The public is stoked on the words "stamp out the terrorists." The public is frightened and feeling in need of protection, and through magnificent military display, the governments are promising them just that. There seems to be hope that all this "stamping" will bring about peace, finally ending the cycle of retaliations.
But stamping out the enemy often has the adverse effect of creating an enemy. State repression in Latin America during the '70s and '80s is an example. Military dictators were given power so that they could stamp out communism. The irony was that communism was an overestimated threat initially, and only grew as a movement in response to increased repression. By labeling any kind of organization communist, the governments limited social activism to militancy, for there was no other viable outlet for unrest.
Once devoted to militant strategy, the rebels found it necessary to exaggerate pro-communist rhetoric in order to obtain support from the Soviet Union.
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This was not all an accident. Military governments needed to create a serious communist threat in order to legitimate their own rule, as well as to receive aid from the United States. The power dynamic created, thus demanded, the continuation of conflict, which as usual, affected the poor masses the most.
The Arab-Israeli conflict is not entirely different. Instead of ideology, people associate themselves with religion. Instead of manifestos, they use Holy Books. Nevertheless, the power trap is similar in that heads of the Israeli state, specifically Ariel Sharon, came to power in response to crisis, and to legitimate their rule, there must be continued crisis. Therefore, if Arafat could offer peace, it would not be enough for Israel's current leaders.
In the meantime, groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad are thriving off the dramatic images of Israeli bulldozers plowing down houses and leaving hundreds of people homeless. Suddenly, many more Palestinians are willing to die to fight the occupation, whereas before they may have been involved only in non-violent protests, or nothing at all. Then suicide bombings and Israeli retaliation become the headlines, year after year, and the real issue is obscured by the idiotic violence.
The real issue is poverty, not terrorism. The real issue is military occupation, not horrific details of the last swath of violence. The real issue is about one million refugees with no place to go, not collective memory of the Holy Land.
As long as those in power achieved their power amidst a rally for war, the real issues will be ignored while the conflict escalates. Wars will continue to be savage, but they will not be for peace.
On the bright side, peace is still good for the common folk, and we have the numbers.
by Mike Wolff
Daily Lobo Columnist
Comments and questions can be sent to Mike Wolff at mudrat@unm.edu.
