Fallows surveys dozens of security and terrorism experts to reach the assessment that al-Qaida is now mostly neutralised and sidelined, but that America's greatest danger remains the national feeling of vulnerability and the corresponding public pressure on politicians to provide security at any cost. This leads to disproportionate reactions and inappropriate spending priorities, both at home and abroad.
the widespread belief in an existential threat helps explain the sweeping changes in attitudes to security in everyday civic life - from armed soldiers patrolling public places like Grand Central Station in New York City and additional security checks on transport (some perhaps sensible, others bizarre: does my 3-year-old really need to take off her shoes for our fellow airline passengers to feel safe?). These measures are quite unsettling to those who recall a country that once rejoiced in extensive freedom of movement.
When torture became a matter of public debate in the US soon after 9/11, it was the surest sign imaginable that something had really slipped in the American mind. That is also when it started to hit me just how traumatised Americans were, how the conflict mentality had warped their basic moral compass. Call me naïve or nostalgic, but the very idea of even discussing the use of torture is something I never expected to see in the country of my birth.
The widespread belief in an existential war affects political decision-making on everything
Then they show a GoogleEarth-assisted look at potential targets in the Chicago area. Rail lines in blue, major highways in yellow, important landmarks and monuments as green circles, key commercial buildings as yellow circles, significant electricity infrastructure in red ... pretty soon the map of greater Chicago is just a pile of cluttered graphics, impossible to make out anything clearly. There are just too many targets; too many things to be afraid of.
And even if people are getting used to believing they are living in wartime, this offers no great comfort, because when such a prevailing attitude exists for too long, a generation emerges that knows nothing else and can imagine nothing better. Surely Americans are not as deeply consumed by a conflict mentality as the young Afghans I spoke with in Kabul in 2002 who wanted their country to declare another war, this time on Pakistan. "But you've just been through decades of civil war, and your country is in ruins: don't you want peace?", I asked. "What is peace?" one of the group of 20-somethings replied.

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Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | This war has taught us that Israel must revise its military approach

Tags: economic, israel, security, strategy, technology, war on 2006-09-04 and saved by2 people -All Annotations (0) -About

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This battlefield is teeming with television lenses, whose image of the war is no less important than the war per se, making the struggle for legitimacy in the public's mind and the morale of one's own soldiers as central to the conflict as military success.
population decentralisation
No deterrent weapon is everlasting.
an economic route rather than a political one
most of the important changes that have occurred around the globe since the end of the second world war have been the outcome not of military interventions but of economic advances
why not privatise part of peace
No longer is the adage "a people will reside alone" valid. There are no frontlines any more, in war or peace.

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The battle to save Iraq's 'ink spots' - Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune

Tags: economics, inkspot, iraq, security, war on 2006-09-04 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Promoting peace is for wimps - real governments sell weapons

Tags: arms, conflict, peace, politics, security on 2006-08-24 -All Annotations (0) -About

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