TERROR AS DISTRACTANT FROM MORE DEADLY GLOBAL THREATS

COMMENTARY ARCHIVES, 7 Apr 2009

Anthony Judge

Bewitching World of Definitional Game-Playing

Introduction

This is a response to the reinforced initiative by the USA in Afghanistan — framed as the world’s prime training ground for terrorism — and possibly to be understood as the arena of the greatest military strategic failures in history. The new strategy was formally presented by Barack Obama on 27 March 2009 and variously interpreted (US rethinks Afghanistan strategy, BBC News, 27 March 2009; Obama Sounds Cautious Note as He Sets Out Afghan Plan, New York Times, 27 March 2009; Obama escalates war in Central Asia, World Socialist Website, 30 March 2009)

The initiative coincides with a reframing of the "War on Terror" as "Overseas Contingency Operations" — seemingly acknowledging that the threat that was is no longer what it was claimed so vigorously to be (Oliver Burkeman, Obama administration says goodbye to ‘war on terror’, The Guardian, 25 March 2009). The strategy is to be rephrased by the USA using the bureaucratic expression "overseas contingency operations". However, from a global strategic perspective, since every country has its "overseas", "Overseas Contingency Operations" would imply there is no longer any corresponding internal threat requiring a focus on "homeland security" — anywhere.

The argument in what follows focuses on the context in which "terrorism" is defined. This provides an introduction to the statistics of other threats that are already as deadly in statistically terms, or may become so, or are a source of terror in their own right.

PLEASE CONTINUE READING IN THE ORIGINAL – LAETUS IN PRAESENS

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 7 Apr 2009.

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