Other People's Wars - Caledonia Wake Up Call

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Other Peoples’ Wars – Chapter Onefourth tier involves the need for self-esteem and respect. Fifth comes the need for selfactualizationand self-identity – to become all that you are capable of being, or to be whoyou think you should be. 8While the literature on sociology and criminology is rich in theory and study, the Britishjournalist Colin M. Wilson did an end run around much of it in a survey of crime. Asimple but accurate assessment of criminal motivation is that it represents a childishshortcut for gratification of a simple need. 9 He is partly right; a man who mightotherwise be harmless will – if drowning – submerge another to stand on him and gainanother lungful of air before death. A hungry person might throw a rock through thewindow of a bakery. Even taking aspects of domination and humiliation into account,rape is still a shortcut for sexual gratification.Terrorists and insurgents – especially in today’s world – are often motivated byMaslow’s fourth and fifth tier needs (but street gangs and terrorists are also capable ofrecruiting people who are in need of companionship too.) As needs are fulfilled, thecommitment to the organization is likely to strengthen bonds and reinforce belief, often toa point of “no return” where no other existence seems possible.Between Wilson and Maslow, a disturbing thought emerges. Most crime in humanhistory has been to achieve the primary tiers of the hierarchy – almost all of the crimedetectable in historical accounts of, for example, Shakespeare’s or Johnson’s London orPre-Revolutionary France reflects issues of survival, shelter and sometimes the need forcompanionship and sex. The modern serial killer or sexual predator can only really befound in history among those whose survival was almost assured due to their high statusin society (men like the Emperor Caligula, or Pope Alexander VI and his son CesareBorgia). However, in modern society, survival becomes less of a problem for all of itsmembers and makes it more likely that criminal behavior in response to fourth and fifthtier needs will become more common. In short, prosperity may bring more terrorism, notless.In the end, terrorism remains almost impossible to accurately define. But its essentialcharacteristics can be described.The Characteristics of TerrorismTerror can be and often is used in war, as a means of governance; and as the chosenconflict method of small groups – who are described as terrorists. These styles of conflictalso show how terrorism is inherently indiscriminate in its effects, and how potentialvictims have no way of ensuring their safety, even when they completely submit to allthat is demanded of them.8. Maslow’s theory evolved over his professional life, but the final presentation (mostly concerned withexplaining Self Actualization) can be found in his last book Motivation and Personality. AlthoughMaslow’s theories have long been overtaken by continuing work on motivational behavior, it has the virtue(to the author) of being simple and has been widely taught for many years.9. Colin M. Wilson; A Criminal History of Mankind; Grafton; London; 19846
Other Peoples’ Wars – Chapter OneA film of Hitler’s 1940 victory in France was shown to audiences in Europe’sremaining neutral countries to spread fear and defeatism across the continent. Stalin’sterror through the NKVD (later the KGB) and the Purges atomized Soviet society,destroying even the very thought of opposition. Contemporary terrorists often appear asshadowy figures of hidden purpose and terrible power. This is not new. An ancientChinese adage advises: “Kill one, frighten ten thousand.” According to turn-of-thecenturyanarchists, terrorism is “Propaganda by deed”, while for American analyst BrianJenkins, “Terrorism is theater.”Almost invariably, terrorist action involves violence or the threat of violence that liesoutside the accepted norms of behavior. Deliberately killing civilians in war is forbiddenby Canon Law, the Geneva Conventions, and the rest of the body of work that comprisethe laws of war for Western Civilization even if, as Hitler so frequently demonstrated,these laws are often more honored in the breach than the observance.Stalin, Pol Pot, and Saddam Hussein ruled without legal restraint of any kind; andmodern terrorist groups wage a form of war that is equally lawless. Note too that thevictims of terror sometimes adopt similar methods in response. Before the end of WorldWar II, Allied air forces targeted civilians. Nations threatened by Communist insurgencyhave sometimes resorted to terroristic suppression. Moreover, it is not unknown forexcessive counter-terrorist methods to eventually seduce police and military intoresembling the enemy that they are fighting. As Friedrich Nietzsche observed: “He whofights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gazeoverlong into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” Terrorists know this is true, andoften work to achieve this transition in the society they attack.These then are the essential characteristics of terrorism:• It can be used in war, in governance, and as a free-standing form of conf lict.• It generally seeks an audience far wider than its actual circle of victims, and theconstant message is “Be afraid!”• It sanctions violence that knows no laws or limits save those set by theperpetrators, and it invites a copy-cat response.• Terrorist violence is inherently indiscriminate in its effects.In addition to these four essentials that are common to all terror, the small groupconflict method (terrorism proper) has some more characteristics of its own:• Because they operate outside the law, terrorist groups are covert. Membersconceal their allegiance or, if they are known to the authorities, they evadearrest.• It uses violence against individuals, small groups, communities and states toadvance a quasi-political agenda such as religious extremism, nationalism,minority grievances, single-issues (such as animal rights), or a radical ideology.• By their small size and covert nature, terror groups present few visible assetsother than their own members’ lives. In contrast, a targeted society offersendless assets as potential targets for the terrorists. This asymmetry makes it7
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Appendix: A List of Canadian Terror
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Mahjoub, Mohamed Zeki. A Toronto ar
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Other People's Wars - Caledonia Wake Up Call

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