| Battlefield Asia |
11 August 2003
|
News from the Indonesian Front -- Another Bombing
There was another bombing by Muslim fanatics in Indonesia last week, this time outside the Jakarta
Marriott. About a dozen people were killed and more than 100 wounded. While the exact time and place
was unpredictable, the act itself was forecast in the Kensington Review months ago. The war on
terror is now being fought outside of the developed world, and that is where it must be won.
A major attack against the US or Europe has not happened since September 11, 2001 because those who
wish to make such an attack simply haven't got the capacity to do so. Intelligence services claim to have
disrupted dozens of planned attacks, and perhaps they have. Contributing to this is the loss of
Afghanistan as a cooperating government, and the generally heightened awareness by the public.
Although seaborne attacks remain possible and although there is no defense against a Timothy McVeigh,
the Homeland (Vaterland?) is unlikely to see any real trouble for the next several months.
Terrorism is guerrilla warfare writ small. That being the case, the rules for a successful guerrilla war must
be employed by both sides. Anything else will give the other side an opening. The September 11 attacks
violated the rule that the insurgents must hide among the people. As Chairman Mao put it, "The people
may be likened to water, and guerrillas to the fish that swim in it." The result was the loss of Afghanistan
by the Fascislamists.
The Jakarta bombing came the same week that the "mastermind" of the Bali bombing some months ago
was given a death sentence. No one can doubt that the war will continue to be fought in Indonesia,
where a large Muslim population acts as water for the Fascislamist fish, and elsewhere in the
developing world. What the west must do is what it did at home, make sure the people cease to be water
and become a desert. The terrorists cannot function where their cause is unpopular. That is the key to
victory.
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