Dialogue: Civilisation depending on war against the dark side

The fight against terrorism must be fought on all its six fronts, no matter how long it takes, says STEPHEN HOADLEY*.

The First War of the 21st Century, as President Bush called it, is two months old. This is a war that most states, including New Zealand, have joined. It is a war in which each of us, uniformed or civilian, is a potential participant, and a potential casualty.

But is this one war or several wars? And is it a war worth fighting?

Before looking at what the war is, let us agree on what it is not. It is not a war of Christianity against Islam. It is not a war of unilateral American vengeance or aggression against Arabs. It is not against the people of Afghanistan or the international humanitarian agencies.

So, what kind of a war is it? In my view, it is a war with six faces.

First, this is a conventional war against the Taleban Government of Afghanistan and its resident Arab collaborators, the al Qaeda terrorists led by Osama bin Laden.

The first phase is an air war to gain air control and to degrade ground defences, communications, supplies and fortifications. The second is to be ground attacks to gain intelligence and experience.

The third phase is to occupy key airfields and cities and to cut roads linking Teleban forces. The fourth is to liberate major cities and populated areas from Teleban and al Qaeda control. The fifth is to defeat and disarm the enemy.

Secondly, this is an asymmetric war. In the face of an organised American frontal assault, the terrorists are using dispersal among civilians, deception and ambush.

As they are defeated in the conventional war, the Teleban and al Qaeda will scatter and adopt guerrilla hit-and-run tactics. We have seen that they will execute prisoners such as the moderate Pashtun leader, Abdul Haq, and ignore the Geneva Convention rules of armed combat.

Further terrorism by cells abroad using biological, chemical and even nuclear weapons will be attempted. Cyber-war can be expected.

Thirdly, this is a war of media images. The mass media of the West is being used by the extremists to gain sympathy. Bin Laden has appealed on TV for jihad or holy war. The Teleban have taken journalists to hospitals and bombsites to show injury, death and destruction allegedly caused by American bombs.

Sympathetic groups in Pakistan and Arab countries, and liberal Western pacifist groups, are being rallied by the presence of TV, radio and newspapers to stage public protests.

The United States counters with well-publicised presidential visits to mosques, food and leaflet drops and new funding for international relief agencies.

Fourthly, this is a diplomatic war. The US clearly needs international support. It welcomed United Nations Security Council resolutions 1368 authorising military action and Nato's declaration of support.

American leaders have consulted widely in Europe, Russia, the Arab states and Asia, including India and China and, of course, in Australia and here. They have been successful insofar as scarcely a single government supports the Teleban.

But American diplomatic sensitivity will be needed to keep this unprecedented coalition together.

Governments have varied interests, some of them in rivalry with the United States. Those repelled by unnecessary injury, or frustrated by slow progress, or just to advance their own political interests, may distance themselves. The US will need to work hard to avoid becoming isolated as it was in the Vietnam War.

Fifthly, this is a war for the political future of Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance is a collection of tribally based warlords with poor human rights records. They are supported variously by Russia, India, Iran and Tajikistan. Nobody wants them to take power again. Everyone wants a moderate government representing all tribes that will work with the West.

The UN may have to help in peacekeeping and nation-building, as it has in Cambodia, Kosovo and East Timor. The neighbours - Iran, Uzbekistan, Russia, Pakistan and India - will have to be happy with the new government or they will work to destabilise it. When this war is won, the Afghan people can be fed and sheltered and begin to enjoy good government.

Sixthly, and most important, this is a war for the safety of the West. Even if the other five wars are gradually won, this war will continue.

But it will transform itself into a protracted campaign of attrition, or a sort of legal-administrative siege. Soldiers will be replaced by intelligence agents, detectives, policemen, border protection officers, judges and prison administrators.

The war against terrorism will merge with the ongoing war against crime. Terrorists have much in common with organised criminals. Both use false identities, sale of drugs, smuggling of money, weapons and people and intimidation and violence as their means. They infiltrate legal institutions and hide among innocent people.

This is a war we have been waging for decades and will wage for decades more. It is no less than a struggle against the greedy and ruthless side of human nature and against brutal social outcasts, the Vandals of our age.

We are at war with terrorists. By extension we are at war against any government that deliberately harbours terrorists and allows them to strike at us.

In this six-faceted war our goals are four: (1) dismantle the extremist Teleban Government; (2) help set up a broad-based moderate government of Afghanis; (3) deliver food and other aid to the Afghan people; (4) arrest and try Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda terrorists wherever they may be found. This will require international cooperation, national funding and personal patience.

Like it or not, even in New Zealand we are all participants. We are vulnerable to terrorist attacks, particularly if we travel to the US or Britain. Costs of travel and insurance and taxes will go up. And our civil liberties might be curtailed in the interests of public safety.

But this is a war worth fighting. Even if the costs are high, and even if mistakes are made, our cause is just. We cannot condone the random killing of innocents by a tiny cabal of ruthless conspirators, no matter how pure their self-proclaimed motives.

We cannot surrender because of claims that we are guilty because of the Crusades, colonialism or cruelty to Palestinians, or that we caused the terrorists to act from desperation. While the grievances might be real, the remedy of the terrorists is specious and their means are heinous.

Looking to the future, beyond the war with six faces, what must we do? We must use our internationalist associations, universities and schools, public meetings and media to build bridges of tolerance between the West and the East, Christians and Muslims, Europeans and Arabs.

We must broaden understanding and mutual interests so as to build an edifice of cooperation. We must isolate the international terrorists and the criminals and the rogue governments.

The war against the dark side of human nature, against those who reject lawful and humane society, may never be totally won, but it must always be fought. If it is ever lost, so too will civilisation as we know it.

* Dr Stephen Hoadley is associate professor of political studies at the University of Auckland.