NP - Fighting the Forces of Invisibility

[David Morris]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55876-2001Oct1.html

Fighting the Forces of Invisibility

By Salman Rushdie
Tuesday, October 2, 2001; Page A25

[...]
Next: the question of the counterattack. Yes, we must send our 
shadow-warriors against theirs, and hope that ours prevail. But this secret 
war alone cannot bring victory. We will also need a public, political and 
diplomatic offensive whose aim must be the early resolution of some of the 
world's thorniest problems: above all the battle between Israel and the 
Palestinian people for space, dignity, recognition and survival. Better 
judgment will be required on all sides in future. No more Sudanese aspirin 
factories to be bombed, please. And now that wise American heads appear to 
have understood that it would be wrong to bomb the impoverished, oppressed 
Afghan people in retaliation for their tyrannous masters' misdeeds, they 
might apply that wisdom, retrospectively, to what was done to the 
impoverished, oppressed people of Iraq. It's time to stop making enemies and 
start making friends.

To say this is in no way to join in the savaging of America by sections of 
the left that has been among the most unpleasant consequences of the 
terrorists' attacks on the United States. "The problem with Americans is . . 
. " -- "What America needs to understand . . . " There has been a lot of 
sanctimonious moral relativism around lately, usually prefaced by such 
phrases as these. A country which has just suffered the most devastating 
terrorist attack in history, a country in a state of deep mourning and 
horrible grief, is being told, heartlessly, that it is to blame for its own 
citizens' deaths. ("Did we deserve this, sir?" a bewildered worker at 
"ground zero" asked a visiting British journalist recently. I find the grave 
courtesy of that "sir" quite astonishing.)

Let's be clear about why this bien-pensant anti-American onslaught is such 
appalling rubbish. Terrorism is the murder of the innocent; this time, it 
was mass murder. To excuse such an atrocity by blaming U.S. government 
policies is to deny the basic idea of all morality: that individuals are 
responsible for their actions. Furthermore, terrorism is not the pursuit of 
legitimate complaints by illegitimate means. The terrorist wraps himself in 
the world's grievances to cloak his true motives. Whatever the killers were 
trying to achieve, it seems improbable that building a better world was part 
of it.

The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings. 
Such people are against, to offer just a brief list, freedom of speech, a 
multi-party political system, universal adult suffrage, accountable 
government, Jews, homosexuals, women's rights, pluralism, secularism, short 
skirts, dancing, beardlessness, evolution theory, sex. These are tyrants, 
not Muslims. (Islam is tough on suicides, who are doomed to repeat their 
deaths through all eternity. However, there needs to be a thorough 
examination, by Muslims everywhere, of why it is that the faith they love 
breeds so many violent mutant strains. If the West needs to understand its 
Unabombers and McVeighs, Islam needs to face up to its bin Ladens.) United 
Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said that we should now define 
ourselves not only by what we are for but by what we are against. I would 
reverse that proposition, because in the present instance what we are 
against is a no-brainer. Suicidist assassins ram wide-bodied aircraft into 
the World Trade Center and Pentagon and kill thousands of people: um, I'm 
against that. But what are we for? What will we risk our lives to defend? 
Can we unanimously concur that all the items in the above list -- yes, even 
the short skirts and dancing -- are worth dying for?

The fundamentalist believes that we believe in nothing. In his world-view, 
he has his absolute certainties, while we are sunk in sybaritic indulgences. 
To prove him wrong, we must first know that he is wrong. We must agree on 
what matters: kissing in public places, bacon sandwiches, disagreement, 
cutting-edge fashion, literature, generosity, water, a more equitable 
distribution of the world's resources, movies, music, freedom of thought, 
beauty, love. These will be our weapons. Not by making war but by the 
unafraid way we choose to live shall we defeat them.

How to defeat terrorism? Don't be terrorized. Don't let fear rule your life. 
Even if you are scared.



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