Today’s War



13th September, 2001.

By Eduardo Haro Tecglen*

I ‘m sorry but this is not terrorism, and should not be seen with the provincialism of José María Aznar [president of Spain] with his slogan that all terrorism is the same. This is a singular episode in a war – of course all wars are terrorist and inhumane but words do mean something - that has been hotting up since the fall of the Berlin wall, and it’s the War of the Third World.

It has a political and economic doctrine of so-called globalisation and there is unlikely to be another of its type. Firstly because of the reaction of those who thought themselves invulnerable. Secondly, because the enemy will not have the capability to repeat it. It is not easy to find five Boeing pilots, accompanied by enough holy soldiers to carry out the highjack and be willing to die.

Personally I think they did not come from outside but were trained in the USA. The War of the Third World is a war to contain poverty: the Gulf War, the bombing of Iraq and Belgrade, and the use of Israel, are all part of the war that includes the New York and Washington bombings. We are vulnerable: our societies, our cities, our advanced technology, our increasingly light materials and our advanced cable and satellite networks are terribly fragile, as was seen for the first time on Tuesday.

Not that nothing is new: the Kamikazes came from a sophisticated civilization, our atomic bombs on Japan were made by our wisest scientists. Pearl Harbour was already New York and the exquisite, philosophical and artistic heritage of Germany. Winning that war, winning against the USSR, eliminating Communism, made us think (the plural does not represent me: rather I am included in this part of the world and in this vulnerability. We are all New Yorkers and I am afraid, being a civilian) that we had arrived at the end of history.

The arrogance of that idea originated in those who lost against defenceless Vietnam and forgot that fact. This war now is also of our civilization: against civilians, against the defenceless. The ratio of the losses of that army - perhaps fifteen or twenty people – against ours - ten thousand – is cost effective. What matters now is that the hysteria, the tough talking, stops soon and the thinking begins. It will not be easy. Thinking has never been part of war: it wipes it out either before or during war.

*He is a columnist of El Pais.