TERRORISM Undergraduate Fellows
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LETTERS Editor: John S. Rosenberg Executive Editor: Christopher Reed Senior Editor: Jean Martin Managing Editor: Jonathan S. Shaw Deputy Editor: Craig Lambert Cambridge 02138 Production and New Media Manager: Mark Felton Piquancy, salaries great and small, hockey, grade inflation Assistant Editor: Nell Porter Brown Art Director: 1 Jennifer Carling -JF-nobox 12/3/01 1:12 PM Page COV Schools • Inner-City Perfect Season Latin America • Berta Greenwald Ledecky TERRORISM Undergraduate Fellows UARY 2002 • $4.95 An acquaintance’s discovery of a JANUARY-FEBR Arianne R. Cohen, Eugenia V. Levenson Editorial Interns: child’s crisply done arm on his roof near Ground Zero just after September 11, and Terry Baynes, Harriett Green y 2002 your fanciful discussion (“Understanding Contributing Editors TERR Terrorism,” January-February, page 36) ORISM John T. Bethell, John de Cuevas, Adam • prompt me to write. Your discussants U .S.-L Goodheart, Max Hall, Jim Harrison, A T IN wa±ed on the salient points of the war A Harbour Fraser Hodder, Christopher S. MERICAN on terrorism. They are: protection of citi- Johnson, Deborah Schneider, REL A T zens remains a first principle of sover- IONS Deborah Smullyan, Mark Steele, • eignty; all terrorism is ultimately state ANIMALS Janet Tassel, Edward Tenner IN terrorism; if you exist we can find you M O Terrorism TION CONSEQUENCES Editorial and Business O≠ice CAUSES and • and kill you; if you commit atrocities INNER 7 Ware Street, - C against America and/or its citizens (see IT Y SCHOOLS Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037 above) we will find you; governments and Tel. 617-495-5746; fax: 617-495-0324 other entities that gestate terrorism or Website: www.harvard-magazine.com shelter its perpetrators will be handled Reader services: similarly; the war on terrorism is novel shunned for perverting it to their conve- 617-495-5746 or 800-648-4499 and only we have mastered its endgame nience. They are led by intelligent, —no one else is close. wealthy, and charismatic fanatics using HARVARD MAGAZINE INC. Why does terrorism exist? Because of modern technology to run circles around President: Daniel Steiner ’54, LL.B. ’58 Directors: evil that is not banal but flourishes be- our CIA. Je≠rey S. Behrens ’89, Peter yond the mind of man. A possible remedy: As for motivation, they are addicted K. Bol, James O. Freedman ’57, L ’60, Philip C. Haughey ’57, Elizabeth C. Let governments, especially the 40 or so only to their cabalistic secrecy, to sur- Huidekoper, Anthony Lewis ’48, Nf ’57, Muslim nations that lack them, install prise, and to demoralizing the “enemy” Lisa L. Martin, Ph.D. ’90, John P. just economic and political institutions with mere threats. They are mindless of Reardon Jr. ’60 that give their citizens a chance at safety, the ultimate consequence of “victory,” health, and prosperity. For many states which would be chaos. As an evil force Harvard Magazine (ISSN 0095-2427) is published bi- monthly by Harvard Magazine Inc., a nonprofit corpora- that is a dose of castor oil—fewer Swiss they would destroy every sense of the tion, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037, phone bank accounts for tyrants—but it will American Constitution, the Bill of Rights, 617-495-5746; fax 617-495-0324. The magazine is sup- ported by reader contributions and subscriptions, adver- save American lives and many of theirs. and the rule of civilized law. To me there tising revenue, and a subvention from Harvard University. David Kenney ’55, M.B.A. ’61 Its editorial content is the responsibility of the editors. is no hope of breaking this up except in Periodicals postage paid at Boston, Mass., and additional Upperside, Va. the way we have responded. mailing o≠ices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Har- Thomas H. Coleman ’44, M.D. vard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138- 4037. Subscription rate $30 a year in U.S. and possessions, I don’t think we should be puzzled, Denver $55 Canada and Mexico, $75 other foreign. (Allow up to 10 weeks for first delivery.) Subscription orders and cus- nor feel any responsibility about, the hate tomer service inquiries should be sent to the Circulation The panel Department, Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge, and violence that erupted against us last could find no consensus re- Mass. 02138-4037, or call 617-495-5746 or 800- 648-4499, or September, because the fact is these peo- garding the definition of terrorism—it’s e-mail [email protected]. Single copies $4.95, plus $2.50 for postage and handling. Manuscript submis- ple are psychopathic: they don’t have the means that defines terrorism; no, it’s sions are welcome, but we cannot assume responsibility for safekeeping. Include stamped, self-addressed envelope human feelings for other people and are the motive; no, it’s only when perpetrated for manuscript return. Persons wishing to reprint any sure they are immediately threatened by against a democratic state; it’s not when portion of Harvard Magazine’s contents are required to write in advance for permission. Address inquiries to an enemy that they must destroy. They the motive is just. Only when the discus- Catherine A. Chute, publisher, at the address given are convinced their mission is justified by sion ground to a close was David Little above. Copyright © 2002, Harvard Magazine Inc. their religion, even though they are able to point out that it is of vital impor- 2 March - April 2002 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For copyright and reprint information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at www.harvardmagazine.com tance that a clear understanding of ter- high regard between universities and the rorism must be attained and utilized both armed forces of the United States…will be to guide and to confine our policies re- something good that has come out of the garding terrorism. challenges we face.” Neither unfettered The threat that security-based legisla- nationalism nor an abject capitulation to Publisher: Catherine A. Chute tion might infringe upon American civil the military seems quite Harvardian, but Financial Manager rights was belittled by Philip Heymann, after all, Summers hasn’t been around Melissa Robinson-Healey without explanation, and a timid chal- here very long. Director of Circulation: lenge was essentially ignored. One might Robert E. Edmunds ’53, M.D. Felecia Carter reasonably conclude, therefore, that the Indianapolis Director of Marketing nation’s security—if left in the hands of Eriko D. Ogawa Harvard’s academics—is not likely to be Terrorism, warfare waged against civil- Director of Advertising endangered by unrestrained civil rights. ians for political objectives, is a tactic as Edward S. Antos The panel was clearly disadvantaged old as war itself. Waging war against ter- Advertising Account Manager when it came to a discussion of condi- rorism makes about as much sense as Robert D. Fitta tions in Islamic states that favor terror- waging war against, say, artillery prepara- Classified Advertising Manager ism. Only Eva Bellin appeared well versed tion or amphibious landings. Besides, if Marron M. Hahn in the practical aspects of Islamic culture. one is really fighting terrorism, one Circulation Assistant: Lucia Santos Her colleagues, unintimidated by their should be landing Marines at Haifa and Assistant to the Publisher / lack of cultural credentials, often spoke carpet bombing Moscow. Both Israel and O∞ce Manager: Sara Stillman with condescension, if not disdain, with Russia currently, and deliberately, make Business Interns: Megan Ga≠ney, reference to Islamic leaders. Many of the tactical use of terrorism. Anna Joo, Vera Leung panelists seem to share a view that Is- Muslim terrorists are not angry adoles- IVY LEAGUE MAGAZINE NETWORK lamic distrust and hatred of America can cents acting out their rage. They are sol- Director of Advertising be abolished if we simply make it clear to diers in a serious war they mean to win. Edward S. Antos, Tel. 617-496-7207 the Muslim world that America is, after The contrary view (apparently the con- Director of Sales Development all, quintessentially good and that al sensus of your panel) represents danger- Lawrence J. Brittan, Tel. 631-754-4264 Qaeda is, clearly, evil. ously delusional arrogance. One is put in New York Advertising Sales More than a few of your panelists are mind of “the best and the brightest” and repelled by President Bush’s rhetoric and their fateful hubris toward the Viet Cong Jack Higgons, Tel. 212-852-5630 Tom Schreckinger, Tel. 212-852-5625 have apprehensions regarding what his and the North Vietnamese Army. Travel Advertising Sales aggressive attitude may portend for the Your panel seemed to accept uncriti- Fieldstone Associates, Tel. 914-686-0442 continuing Enduring Freedom crusade. cally the o∞cial rationale for the war in Detroit Advertising Sales Their common concerns relate to Bush’s Afghanistan: a fight against terrorism and simplistic “Manichaean” posture, framing its sponsors. In fact, this was a war for oil Wynkoop Associates, Tel. 248-373-1026 Chicago Advertising Sales the conflict in diametrically opposed and and gas pipelines. September 11 gave Wash- mutually exclusive forces of good (read: ington the pretext it needed to try to Robert Purdy, Tel. 312-726-7800 U.S.A.) and evil (read: al Qaeda), and thus achieve by armed force what it hadn’t West Coast Advertising Sales generating the contentious challenge been able to achieve any other way: politi- Brad Jones Media Sales, Inc. “You’re either with us or against us.” Lit- cal and security conditions favorable to Tel. 707-935-9296 tle concludes that “the strident unilater- the Unocal pipeline from the Central Board of Incorporators alism of Bush is deeply misguided and in Asian oil fields through Afghanistan to This magazine, at first called the Harvard Bulletin, was founded in 1898.