The Munich Mentality
by: Guest
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Word Count: 703
Steven Spielberg’s movie Munich delineates the ultimate trump card used by extremists to justify the wanton killing of anyone, including babies, in the pursuit of their goals. Their rationale is stunningly simple and effective: the more heinous the killing, the greater the likelihood over time of gaining sympathy from those who will think “How horribly oppressed these people must be to be driven to such dire acts of violence.” Thus, the natural desire of humanity to seek peace and forgive their enemies becomes a fatal weakness that is exploited to the hilt by today’s extremist leaders.
For the most part, history has proven them right. Both for the Israelis fighting the PLO and the British battling the IRA, world opinion slowly shifted over time from condemning the initial acts of terrorism to blaming the British and Israeli governments for perpetuating terrorism by “overreacting” to these acts of violence. As the number of deaths of innocent bystanders continually grows, any response to an act of terrorism that causes innocents to die becomes the fault of the responders.
Certainly, this has become the case in Iraq, where Saddam Hussein’s well documented acts of military aggression toward his enemies and his longtime support of worldwide terrorism are no longer viewed as sufficient cause for the United States to have enforced UN sanctions, resulting in an act of war. No, it’s “Bush’s War”, plain and simple. Since Saddam didn’t have stockpiles of WMD’s and there was no clear evidence of a direct operational link to al Qaeda, his nearly lifelong pursuit of the destruction of Israel (and the United States by extension) is irrelevant. Those opposed to the war in Iraq say we had nothing to fear.
The concept of a terrorist “underworld” where militants exchange information on how to plan and execute terrorist acts, using cell phones and the internet, seems to have eluded most Americans. Extremist groups don’t need a common command structure or even need to share the same ideology in order to be willing to trade knowledge in order to destroy a mutual enemy. History has already proven that Saddam’s Iraq was a facilitator of terrorist acts against the United States and its interests. War opponents don’t seem to understand that in the long run, the fact that Saddam wasn’t involved in planning the 9/11 attacks is irrelevant.
Consequently, the extremists are winning the public relations battle. Every death in Iraq has become Bush’s fault because he tricked us into a “disastrous” war under “false pretenses”. Is it really true that the majority of Americans felt the United States was in imminent danger from an attack by Saddam Hussein? Isn’t it more likely that we let Bush take military action because we knew that Iraq’s army would easily be defeated? The mistake, which the majority of us didn’t question until the body count grew unacceptably high and the war dragged on too long, was in believing that in a few short years a stable democracy could be installed in Iraq with minimal bloodshed.
Now, the “betrayed” American public wants to end the “senseless deaths” in Iraq. Where is the outcry over the roughly 780 American lives lost to acts of terrorism overseas during the past three decades prior to 9/11? The 9/11 attacks were simply an escalation of an undeclared war. The nearly 3000 lives lost on 9/11 were more than a debit to be repaid with the destruction of al Qaeda and the capture or death of Osama bin Laden. Even if that did happen, the story never would have ended in Afghanistan.
The tragedy of 9/11 should serve as a constant reminder that there will be no turning back. There will be no more concessions to the Munich mentality. The United States needed take a stand somewhere against the growing militancy of it’s enemies. If not Iraq, where? If not now, when?
Regardless of what happens in Iraq, those who practice terrorism will continue to succeed as long as we accept the blame for their actions. It’s true that we can’t defeat terrorism through military action alone. The “civilized” world needs to stop enabling terrorism by falling prey to the Munich mentality. Reject terrorism. Paraphrasing Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over till we say it’s over!”
About the Author
Dale is a politically independent research scientist interested in non-partisan analysis and problem solving.
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