The september 11 attacks on the world trade center were the beginning of a new type of guerrilla war waged on a global scale between countries such as the USA, UK, Spain against the now widely known Al-Qaeda network of guerrilla fighters and terrorists. Unlike other guerrilla wars in history where the rebels constricted their efforts to topple the regime of a particular country this war is being waged on an international scale under the scrutiny of the media.
The objective of the conventional guerrilla is not a victory but rather to not allow the goverment to win. That theory holds true even on this international scenario. However different this new scenario is to the orthodox it is still being run using the basic guerrilla warfare tactics and strategy.
The structure of the Al-Qaeda organization is based on individual isolated sections based on divergence. There is no one person at the top controlling the entire organization. Though the media has idolized Usama Bin-ladin as the ultimate terrorist leader, the truth is that the organization he started continues to function with or without his guidance. This is because it has been divided into many independent sections each operating on its own and oblivious to the others. Therefore if one 'cell' is arrested the others will keep functioning. Even trying to acquire information from one cell is useless because they simply do not know anything about the other sections of the organization.
Standard anti authority tactics are being followed but with a twist. The conventional terrorists would normally target only the goverment's military and authoritarian arm but in this case civillians are being targeted as well. By striking against very vulnerable civillians in foreign countries the terrorists use the fear generated to force the foreign goverments to take extreme measures to protect their population. These extreme measures gradually develop into a 'police state' where the goverment would overstep its authority and extend its anti-terrorism operations to its internal affairs. Doing this, the terrorists can over an extended time frame turn a population against its goverment. This is also done to produce more war and conflict on an international scale, such as giving goverments an excuse to invade other countries, not only by using fear but also by keeping in mind goverments' self interests in invading foreign countries.
One of the guerrilla's strategies is that it is not easy to assign blame on terrorist attacks, A goverment runs itself by laws and regulations but he guerrilla organization is not limited by these. A goverment or a country can be held responsible for its actions but a group of terrorists is not limited by laws or responsibility. Thus forcing the countries/goverments fighting terrorism to break their own rules. An example; If a small terrorist organization commits atrocities it is not easy to find a country to blame, but if a soldier commits atrocities his country is held responsible. This all plays well to recruit new fighters into their organization, if a country invades another to fight terrorism, naturally innocent people would die in the process creating enough anger and hate to produce even more terrorist fighters in a chain reaction that is not easy to end (like throwing fuel on a fire).
The media has been a prime player in this process, used as a tool by both sides of the equation. Evident in the frequent release of execution videos and politicians playing up their appearance to an international audience.
How does this 'chain reaction' end ?
No comments:
Post a Comment