Orion > Thoughts on America

Since the terrible events of September 11, America has become preoccupied with the prevention of further terrorism. Real long-term security, however, demands a radical change in the lifestyle that has made us vulnerable to attack. We have begun to tighten airport and aircraft security. We have enhanced the military protection of nuclear power plants, cities, defense installations, and other vital spots. We have moved to freeze assets of terrorist groups and their fundraising organizations. We have started to build defensive and offensive alliances with the nations surrounding Afghanistan and Iraq. And we have dispatched aircraft carriers and other assault forces to the Persian Gulf and neighboring strategic regions. All of these actions are reasonable and necessary; we probably have no choice but to do them. Yet it is highly unlikely that they will be successful by themselves in containing terrorism and the seething unrest that consumes so many Third World states in the Middle East, northern Africa, eastern Europe, and western Asia.

This narrow approach will fail for a number of reasons. (1) Our highly interlinked and complex technology and economic system are inherently unstable. They are easily damaged at many points - far too many to detect and secure - and they can be destroyed with a miniscule investment of labor and money compared with the cost of guarding and rebuilding them. Witness the untold human misery and hundreds of billions of dollars of devastation caused by 19 men armed with a few knives and box cutters, tools that any Neolithic man or woman would have quickly understood and mastered. (2) Alliances built with states such as Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and even Saudi Arabia (the source of the majority of the Sepember 11th terrorists), are doomed to failure; we will only end up equipping and training the next round of terrorists. (3) There is no target in the sense of conventional, 17th - 20th century Clauscwitzian war, as Martin van Creveld and other military historians and analysts have been saying for years. In the new "low-intensity conflicts," our high-tech weapons are worthless - too expensive to risk losing in battle, even if they did work, and so costly that the number of soldiers we can afford to send with them is pitifully small.

There is, however, a better route to security, one that relies on reinvigorating and protecting the stable and sustainable elements of our national life, rather than shoring up a shaky, unnecessary structure that was starting to collapse well before September 11th. There are two key parts to this strategy: drastically reducing our consumption of oil, partly by cutting the waste and extravagance that promotes it, and partly by utilizing technologies of energy efficiency; and strengthening our communities - from urban neighborhoods to farm towns and villages - by helping them escape the economic, social, and cultural dependence that has been imposed on them by a deadly economics that considers them worthless. The example of our democracy alone has not helped us to win friends in the Third World; it has been contradicted and overshadowed by the example of the selfish and massively destructive way we live.

Can we do what we need to do? Can we rebuild our railroad network in every part of the United States? Can we inventory and preserve our vanishing skills in manufacturing, crafts, and design? Can we rescue our farmers and farm communities from oblivion while giving the country a real policy of food security? Can we stop the ruthless exploitation and ravaging of the environment that sustains us? What can we do about our helpless, hopeless suburbs? Can we implement the many proven methods (such as microlending and local currencies) that will give our communities and neighborhoods a chance to regain sustainability, and can we develop other methods? Certainly not with the present political leadership - Republicans and Democrats - and not with the ungodly power that has been usurped by the multinational corporations that manipulate our elected representatives. Without fundamental reforms, we are in for a downward spiral of terrorism and ineffectual response, culminating in chaos and suffering on an unprecedented scale.

The only way to avoid this outcome is for the people of this country to take back control of their lives and values, which will require a massive grassroots effort, many new leaders, and a spirit of sacrifice, adventure, hope, and love.

October 4th, 2001

A Better Route to Security by David Ehrenfeld

A Better Route to Security
by David Ehrenfeld