The first 1000 days of the Soviet Trap

Wasn’t the bi-polarization of the world, during the Cold War, much easier to handle? We knew where the ‘bad guys’ were and how to thwart their every communist move. We had the CIA and they had the KGB. We were for free markets and they were for five year plans. We had stars and stripes they had hammer and sickles. However, underneath this James Bond façade of shadow operations and clandestine missions was a fallacy.

The domino theory and USSR domination of communist ideology throughout the world was a fallacy. An erroneous belief which enabled the arms race and countless billions spent to enrich the Military Industrial Complex. It is accurate that the Soviet threat was genuine however the philosophy of Soviet collusion between ALL communist nations was false and a catastrophic gaffe. Moreover, this mistake pulled our attention away from other geo-political causes such as disease prevention, terrorism, poverty and environmental degradation; tribulations which are much more costly and devastating when not prevented.

Soviet communism fell upon its own weight. Some have argued, quite ignorantly, that the arms race sped the collapse of controlled markets. In fact, statistics prove that defense expenses were a fraction of Soviet GDP. The fact remains, Soviet style five year plans were mismanaged and ill equipped to handle such a vast and complex population. The US believed otherwise. We felt that the USSR was in control of China, Cuba, and Vietnam (not to mention all of Central and South America). According, to our actor president, ‘the evil empire’ was the authority behind each nation. This irrational thinking has now resurfaced in our so called ‘war on terrorism’.

We see Al Qaeda as the source of all Arabic terrorism and it is the central hub of thought, philosophy and plans for jihad. They are evil and we are good. You are either with us or against us. The US has developed a strategy of black and white. There are no grey areas in this global struggle against extremism and radical Islam. Once again we have fallen into the trap of a provincial foreign policy. Unfortunately, this threat is not going to fall upon its own weight. This problem has grown to portions that the US has never seen.

Terrorist cells are now INDEPENDENTLY orchestrating assaults on civilian targets. See London and Madrid as examples. True these cells take their cues from groups such as Al Qaeda, the Salaifs, the Wahhabists, Lashkar-e-Tayba, Harakat ul-Mujahedin, and Jundullah. However, they are not in direct contact with any of these groups. In fact, most do not identify with the groups at all, they only identify with a sense of Muslim umma (community of believers). Thus, our strategy for fighting these groups is incomplete and has the unintended effect of energizing Muslims toward Jihad instead of Dawa (preaching). Islamic terrorism is not “Soviet Style”. It is not centrally located, it is not found in the heart of Osama Bin Laden, it is found where poverty has circumvented prosperity and religion has infiltrated government.