War is terrorism.

     War is the intentional infliction of suffering and death on a group of people for the purpose of terrorizing them into doing what you want them to do. That is also what terrorism is. Each is the use of violence to achieve a political or economic objective. When President Bush declared war on terrorism, he was declaring the intent to use terrorism to fight terrorism.

     Of course, he was lying. He had no intent or desire to eliminate terrorism. Terrorism is a very important tool in the U.S. foreign policy tool kit. Many of our major allies also use terrorism as part of their own foreign policy tool kits. Bush didn’t want to get rid of terrorism. He’s helping to train terrorists here in the United States right now. What he wanted was an excuse to increase his own use of terrorism against groups and nations he did not like.

     The use of terrorism as a tool can be effective in achieving some political goals, but it cannot make other people like you or trust you. In most cases it makes the other people dislike and distrust you.

     When we use terrorism to fight terrorism, we legitimize terrorism as a tactic. We also make it much more likely that the other people will use terrorism as a tactic against us. Violence not only fails to cure its own root causes, it makes those root causes worse. The result is the vicious circle where we terrorize them because they are terrorizing us, and vice versa. President Bush does not want to eliminate war and terrorism, because it is good for his political fortunes.

     I heard about an interesting psychological experiment recently, where the experimenters tested the effects of subliminal reminders of death on the way that people treat members of their own group versus the way that they treat members of an opposition group. The individuals who were not given the subliminal reminders of death treated their own members and the opposition members about the same.

     The group given the reminders of death treated the members of their own group far more favorably than they treated the members of the opposition group. Violence and death help create an “us versus them” mentality.

     That “us versus them” mentality turns out to be good for the leaders of “us.” It raises public support for our leaders. It makes us less likely to question public policy. It increases the number of people who volunteer for military service or for other forms of support for our side.

     Of course, it also is good for the leaders of “them.” The heads of the groups we label as terrorist organizations have substantially increased their own recruiting because of that same psychological tendency. The others are under attack from us, and so they feel justified in attacking us.

     In effect, our terrorists and their terrorists are mutually dependent on each other to keep up the terror levels. They happily meet each other’s needs by attacking each other on a regular basis. Terrorist leaders on both sides benefit from this arrangement.

     As we approach the midterm elections, George Bush needs a boost in his political fortunes. How nice for him that renewed fighting has broken out in the Middle East. Fresh new images of destruction and death dominate the news media, and reinforce that vital “us versus them” mentality just in time for the elections.

     Republican strategists openly announced a few weeks ago that they were going to go back to the national security well again this election, and tell the voters that the GOP is the only party that can keep us safe. Now, right when it is needed, here is a convenient new war to drive the point home.

     Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together like that?

---