Big Bang settles in for the Slow Burn
ARTICLE: "Smoke of Iraq War 'Drifting Over Lebanon: In Political and Social Life, Returned Fighters Inspire Climate of Militancy," by Anthony Shadid, Washington Post, 12 June 2006, p. A1.
Not the best way to spread the Big Bang's effects elsewhere in the region, but one that reminds us that--once begun--there's no turning back the turning point that was the toppling of Saddam.
Does the war create jihadists that otherwise would not rise up? I honestly don't think so. When you're disconnected from any economic future worth pursuing, you resort to fighting over that which is still left to fight over: identity. The jihad mentality vis-a-vis the U.S. is just a macrocosmic escape from much feared and much misunderstood change. For individuals with either no stomach or taste for change (the truly ambitious leave for the Core), the pursuit of "righteousness' sure as hell beats working for a living.
In my relatively benign college years it was called New Wave and pot. But eventually I got over it and decided to have a real life. That real life forced me to leave the homeland (Wisconsin), but no problem there. I prefer the Lexus to the Olive Tree.
But when all you've got is that Olive Tree, you learn to shape your personal struggles to fit the perceived, larger ones. And if you can dress that up with a host of ancient hatreds, racial biases, perceived insults and a debilitating sense of civilizational inferiority complex ("we're f--ked up because you made us that way!"), it's a gloriously heady mix.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not from some other planet on the subject. I grew up in a household that hated all Brits on principle. I didn't learn about Bloody Sunday from some U2 album. And my Mom basically ordered me to pick Harvard's offer over Yale's just to stick it to all those New England Protestants who kept the "dirty Irish" outta the Yahd all those decades.
So yeah, she turned me into a newt!
But I got better, grew up, moved on, married a nice German girl whose father was a Congregational minister, and left that conflict where it belonged: in the 20th century (like Niall Ferguson's new book!).
Still, a sad story to see. Economic connectedness can obviate the killing, but if that fails, the Big Bang will certainly speed it up.