Contributors
Charles Kopp - Contributor

Charles Kopp is a graduate of the New School for Social Research. He is a composer and musician, and an ardent lover of poetry. He has been a teacher and a systems analyst. In Lafayette, California, he now designs websites and works on creative projects. He can be contacted at charleskopp@earthlink.net [go to Kopp index]

Mistakes in Wartime
A war we must fight, like it or not...
[Charles Kopp] 2/5/04

Start with a self-evident certainty: Civilization faces an enemy in terrorism, in an Islamic extremism that cannot tolerate the existence of a non-Moslem world (especially a prosperous one), and this conflict is going to be with us for decades to come.

The term “self-evident” is used with the full awareness that some leftists would dispute it. Some believe if we were “less arrogant” a civilization, “more sensitive” to the life experiences of the oppressed, “more even-handed” between Palestinians and Israelis, our problems with terrorism would disappear. This is foolishness. If we handed Israeli Jews over on a silver platter tomorrow, we would still have millions of implacable enemies.

Individuals who believe such things evidently are not reading what Islamic fundamentalists are writing. Clearly our very breath is objectionable; our existence is an unpardonable act of violence against their beliefs. Everyone will understand the truth of this in time; it’s just a question of how many of us will be murdered in order to make the problem clear to American progressives who see the world in the light of their ideology, rather than as it is.

The problem is deeply entrenched. Many millions of Moslems live in severe poverty even though vast wealth passes daily through the hands of their leaders, and it "works” for these leaders to blame this circumstance on our civilization. Millions of poor, indoctrinated in hatred, will certainly result in thousands of well armed terrorists, well concealed in many nations, in third world urban wastelands and in vast mountainous tracts of wilderness. Victory will not come cheap or easy, but it is no less necessary on these accounts. There is no escape from this necessity.

Whoever leads this war on terrorism, and no matter how they proceed, mistakes are going to be made, as in any long and great human struggle. Sometimes these mistakes are going to have terrible and tragic costs. Anyone who has studied World War II closely could recite many examples of strategies and tactics which, viewed in retrospect, might have been d“needlessly” cost many lives, soldiers and civilians both. Nevertheless, those who had to decide on tactics and strategies did not have the luxury of postponing their decisions until perfection and certainty might be achieved. They had to do what they could, as best they could, during the days that were given to them.

Many of us understand that we are in a major war against terrorism, a struggle equal in significance to a World War. It is not the WW III that filmmakers and science fiction have expected, but this is the conflict of our time. We must be prepared for a long, difficult, dangerous era. If we proceed firmly and consistently, this conflict will be somewhat shorter; if we proceed in a disunited, hesitant way, it will be longer. Either way, it will be longer than we wish.

Every American will understand, eventually, that we must face this conflict whether we wish to or not. Once a clear majority of us reach this awareness, the bickering over details will be seen for what it is -- a meaningless sideshow. Of course there are failures of intelligence data. Of course there are mistakes in strategy, failed endeavors, hard lessons, and tragic losses that might have been avoided. Ask any veteran, or any historian. This is a war, and civilization will prevail. Get used to it.

copyright 2004 Charles Kopp