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CONTENTS

THE AMERICAN INTEREST • VOLUME 1, NUMBER 4 (SUMMER 2006)

from the war files 6 Making Enemies: An Anthropology of Islamist Terror by Anna Simons Nearly five years into the War on Terror, the Bush Administration still lacks a serious understanding of our Islamist enemies. Here is such an understanding (first in a two-part series). 19 Law, Liberty and War Anne-Marie Slaughter & Jeremy Rabkin cross swords over constitutional balances and civil liberties amidst the War on Terror. 28 Business Bombs: The Rise of Terrorism-for-Profit 6 by Justine Rosenthal Some terrorists these days are in it just for the money, but that doesn’t make them a pocket change problem. 33 Blowtorch Bob in Baghdad by Richard K. Betts Robert Komer’s retrospective on the Vietnam War sheds a hazy light on U.S. choices in Iraq.

a symposium on the american image

43 Ali Salem, Itamar Rabinovich, Lilia Shevtsova, Bronislaw Geremek, Owen Harries & Tom Switzer, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Luis Rubio, 43 Niall Ferguson, Hiro Aida, Wang Jisi and C. Raja Mohan. Americana 82 A Short History of a Big Mistake by Ralph Rossum Americans revere the Framers, but few realize how distorted their handiwork became at the hands of the 17th Amendment. 94 A Conversation with Kinky Friedman Texas’ most renowned Jewish cowboy is busier than a horsefly on a chili dog running as an independent for Governor. 101 Industrial Folklore: George Gerbner’s (Tele)Vision by Joseph Turow 94 George Gerbner studied the cultural impact of television with greater intensity than anyone. A colleague explains what he learned. 107 The Truman Standard by Derek Chollet & James Goldgeier Bush Administration principals often compare themselves to those of the Truman Administration. But does the current crowd really meas- ure up? Getting Organized 113 The Trouble with USAID by Roger Bate USAID is a mess. Can the Administration’s recent reform package fix it? 122 Toolbox: The Democracy Bureaucracy Adam Garfinkle, editor by Thomas Melia Daniel Kennelly, managing editor President Bush has made the spread of democracy the cen- David Donadio, deputy managing editor Rachel Jurado, assistant editor tral strategic goal of U.S. foreign policy. Are we organized Michael McDonald, literary counsel to do this? Erica Brown, editorial consultant Simon Monroe, illustrator 132 Get Smart by Norman Augustine Executive Committee Next to war, the greatest threat to American power and pros- Francis Fukuyama, chair perity is our acute education deficit. Zbigniew Brzezinski Eliot Cohen Josef Joffe reviews Editorial Board 138 What Is a War Crime? Anne Applebaum, Peter Berger, Niall Ferguson, Bronislaw Geremek, by Barry Gewen Owen Harries, Samuel Huntington, What do recent trials of Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Bernard-Henri Lévy, Glenn C. Loury, Hussein have to do with the venerable postwar legacy of Walter Russell Mead, C. Raja Mohan, Douglass North, Ana Palacio, Nuremberg? Not enough. Itamar Rabinovich, Ali Salem, 146 Old Master Lilia Shevtsova, Mario Vargas Llosa, Wang Jisi, Ruth Wedgwood, by Fred Baumann James Q. Wilson, Shin’ichi Yamamuro Cultural critic Philip Rieff has been a man of few but powerful words. Now, at age 84, he has published the first volume of a new trilogy. Charles Davidson, publisher 150 Something New Under the Sun Sara Bracceschi, advertising by Aaron David Miller Noelle Daly, customer service Damir Marusic, marketing Shlomo Ben-Ami has done something remarkable, says a vet- Jamie Pierson, circulation eran U.S. Middle East diplomat: He’s said something new.

ADVERTISING SALES 153 Tales of the Raj Perry Janoski by Jeffrey Meyers publishing representative The Ruling Caste is the best book on the British civilians Allston-Cherry Ltd. (212) 665-9885 who ruled India in 50 years. Americans might learn some- Imran Ahmad thing from it. Adspace Sales Corporation LLC (92-21) 587-4214 156 Retroview: Utopianism Redux by John Gray The re-publication of Leszek Kolakowski’s magisterial Main Currents of Marxism is cause for celebration. The migration website www.the-american-interest.com of the utopian illusion he understood so well is not.

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Please add $14 per year for print-subscription delivery outside the U.S. and Canada. 164 Dissecting Anti-isms by Josef Joffe Postmaster and subscribers, send subscription orders of address to: The American Interest, P.O. Box 338, Mount Morris, IL Anti-Americanism is distinguished by five characteristics 61054-7521 common to all “anti-isms.” The American Interest (ISSN 1556-5777) is published four times a year by The American Interest LLC. Printed by Fry Com- munications, Inc. Postage paid in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. 172 Yankee Doodle ©2006, The American Interest LLC. Editorial offices: 1730 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Suite 617, Washington, DC 20036. Tel.: (202) 223-4408. Fax: (202) 223-4489. Email: ai@the- american-interest.com.

FROM THE WAR FILES

Making Enemies An Anthropology of Islamist Terror, Part I

ANNA SIMONS

oon we will mark the fifth anniversary of That is why, too, we often hear comparisons the September 11, 2001 attacks, and with between the Cold War and the War on Terror, Sit the fifth anniversary of the War on and debates about the accomplishments of the Terror. The good news is that the United States Truman and Bush Administration in circum- has not suffered a comparable blow since that stances presumed to be similar. terrible day; the bad news is that our govern- One common view in the Bush ment still lacks a proper understanding of our Administration and among many Americans is enemies and what motivates them. That, in that Muslims are oppressed. Liberate them turn, is a major reason why the end of this war from authoritarianism, from poverty and job- is nowhere in sight: After all, how can we know lessness, from puritanical interpretations of if we have defeated an enemy we cannot ade- Islam and a sexist division of labor, and they quately define? will no longer be so envious of us, so frustrated Our difficulty in understanding what we are or so violent. Implicit here is the notion that up against flows from the fact that we have no they will also become more modern if not more obvious precedent for this Islamist enemy (but Western, and that that will help, too. Surely there are non-obvious precedents, of which they are right that millions of Muslims would more below). So American policymakers and like more freedoms. But which freedoms, and policy intellectuals, most of whom know little to what degree? And do all Muslims want for about Islamic and Arab history or modern trib- other Muslims of every sect and sex what they al societies, usually default to reasoning by anal- want for themselves? This is a far more con- ogy from historical cases they do know. That is tentious issue than many seem to realize—as one reason the post-World War II histories of the dissolution of Iraq happening before our Germany and Japan were so often analogized to very eyes demonstrates. Iraq, and why some thought that liberated Push harder on the analogies to the Cold Iraqis would react more or less as liberated War and it is easy to find other troubling dis- Poles, Czechs and Hungarians did in 1989. crepancies. For instance, the Cold War not only stayed cold between the Soviets and ourselves, Anna Simons is a professor of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Editor’s Note: This article is first in a two-part California. series, to be continued in the Autumn 2006 issue.

6 THE AMERICAN INTEREST but there was also a fairly clear etiquette to how than a nativist reaction to Westernization. The each used proxies. Both sides also understood encroachment of Western mores and our push what the other was after. There were, in other for social and economic change worldwide all words, inherent symmetries within the struggle. threaten corporate Muslim identity—group No such equivalences exist between Islamists identity, in other words—in Islamists’ eyes. and us. We cannot even say who or what exact- Not all Muslims oppose Westernization, but ly comprises a side. those who do I will call “nativists.” They not This conflict is not a contest between two only do not want to Westernize, they also command economies or two different methods actively oppose accommodationist Muslims of governance. As committed as many Islamists who, by succumbing to the West, threaten the are to achieving social justice and improving integrity of Islam itself. This, in essence, is what social welfare according to religious prescripts, we are up against: They want to expunge us; they do not just seek to better Muslims’ lives in we, in turn, don’t seem to realize how this world. The fate of souls in the world to omnipresent and troubling we are. come, as well as the future of Islam itself, mat- ter just as much and, for some, very much ativism is hardly a new phenomenon. more. On the one hand, we keenly appreciate NHistory is full of instances of violent the apocalyptic stakes involved should terrorists reactions to changes introduced from without, get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, and in virtually all cases, religion played a key but on the other, we gloss over the possibility role in mobilizing people against external that Islamists want to do us grave harm out of threats. Indeed, nothing has proven more use- deep spiritual conviction. It is easier and more ful for dehumanizing others and justifying hor- politic to boil the problem down to inequities rific acts of violence. What this means is that rather than iniquity. Most of us can understand Islamist terrorism cannot be regarded as sui why young Muslim males might be angry as generis, although Islamism does differ in at least they face futures in which they cannot afford three significant regards from most other wives and cannot expect ever to have decent nativisms. First, Islamists may be anti-Western jobs. Tying their anger to emasculation and vice but they are not anti-modern; indeed, as many versa makes their violence more comprehensi- have noted, Islamists have nothing against ble to us, and we can potentially do something modern technology. Second, they belong to a about their poverty and lack of opportunity, world religion whose reach is truly global, just as we may be able to help ameliorate con- which is ideal for helping terrorists recruit, ditions of tyranny and corruption over time. communicate, finance, orchestrate, advertise This understanding fits our intellectual frame- and hide. Third, not only were nativists more work, yes—but it is dangerously incomplete. localized in the past, but techniques for defeat- Because, too, most of those in policymaking ing them almost always involved the applica- and policy-advising circles are more familiar tion of indiscriminate force—something that with the precepts of political science and eco- will not work against these nativists unless we nomics than with anthropology, promoting want to play directly into Islamist hands. good governance is bound to seem like the right Islam itself, then, has to be considered a fac- response. Only when one notices the structural tor—the factor that nearly everyone shies conditions underlying economic and political away from discussing. But so, too, are several dysfunction is it clear that this will hardly suf- other factors that may be equally deep-seated fice. Without question, poverty and authoritar- and even more difficult to disentangle: adoles- ianism act as enablers of Islamist terrorism. But cence, which affects all young men and there- what of other enablers? What about Islam itself, by funnels actors into this drama; and faction- and the ongoing collision between Islam and alism, which lurks in all societies and guaran- what we somewhat casually call “the West”? tees nativists support. These are the enabling That is the collision we must examine. factors of concern to us here. And again, while When we do, we will see that the Islamist chal- the sources of grievance most often raised in lenge is something more, but also nothing less, discussions of Islamic terrorism—authoritari-

SUMMER 2006 7 FROM THE WAR FILES anism and poverty—surely deserve attention, Adolescence to focus solely on what people don’t have caus- es us to miss what people remain attached to t is an elemental observation of anthropol- and will fight to the death to protect. Iogy that organized violence might not exist, Corporate loyalty, spiritual hunger and the and certainly could not long persist, without need to prove moral worth are just some of the young males. This simple fact too often goes drives that can inspire acts of self-sacrifice. unspoken. Without ample supplies of young When it comes down to it, few people are men attracted to violence, Afghanistan, Iraq motivated to fight solely by hate or fear; what and Palestine would be different sorts of they’re fighting for likewise matters, particu- places. Arguments which assume that adoles- larly when corporate religious identity is at cent males act violently only because they feel stake. alienated, bitter, frustrated or even just anx- Many conclusions follow from this ious ignore the evidence. While violence does sketch. First, if authoritarianism is an offer a release for rage, resentment, repression enabler but not the core cause of the threat and pent-up hormonal urges, and while we face, it follows that democratizing the aggression can earn those who are good at it Middle East, were it possible, will not solve loot, booty, sex, higher status and respect, the problem. It may ameliorate it, but it weapons and the instruments of violence themselves hold a certain fascination. There is a universal Adrenaline rushes are fun, no matter their source. bio-grammar to all We would be wise to approach the young male-organized violence nexus by reconsidering human societies. the contours of adolescence more broadly. As Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox have noted, there is a universal bio-grammar to all human soci- might also make things worse (of which eties.1 Ideally, adolescence represents the period more in Part II). Second, if Islamist radical- during which young males are supposed to ism is a nativist reaction born of a fierce rebel in order to be socialized. Cleverly con- desire to protect corporate Muslim identity, structed societies channel male aggression out- it follows that corporate identity will increas- ward and into institutions (e.g., warriordom, ingly matter and that no sharp line dividing monasteries, universities) where they can do lit- “radicals” from “moderates” can be stable. tle social harm but still test the limits of their Since moderates may be radicalized at any capabilities and others’ reactions. Because learn- point, strategies based on a clear distinction ing how to lead and follow—or to manipulate between the two are untenable. Third, once and respond to social dynamics—can only real- we understand nativist movements, it should ly be done among peers, young men group (or become evident that the assumption that are grouped) together. Islamists are motivated primarily by negative For better or worse, such groups generate feelings of inferiority is wrong—a conclu- their own sets of internal tensions from which, sion with first-rank implications for deter- in communal societies especially, there is no mining our communications strategies in escape. In these settings youth are hemmed in the Arab and Muslim worlds. by a finite number of prospective roles, set soci- But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let us etal expectations, a pre-determined cast of first unpack the thesis and approach Islamist adults, and peers who will likely remain peers terrorism from an anthropological perspective. for life. This may help explain differences in Let us discuss adolescence and factionalism, the mutual expectations among young adults raised dialectic between Westernization and accom- in places like Pakistan as against young adults modation that gives rise to religiously infused nativism itself, and Islamism as a particular case 1Tiger and Fox, The Imperial Animal (Transaction, in point. 1997 [1971]).

8 THE AMERICAN INTEREST MAKING ENEMIES: AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF ISLAMIST TERROR raised in more atomizing environments like socially allowed. Illicitness holds cachet, while Lodi, Lackawanna or Leeds, and the yearning in tandem secrecy and camaraderie reinforce that the latter often feel for the tight peer com- each other’s mystique. munities the former seem to have. Camaraderie is both much simpler and more As for emotions stirred up during adoles- complex than is often realized. First, it provides cence, most seem to be more intense versions purpose. Second, group dynamics act as a goad of those felt during childhood, but associated to experimentation. Third, strength in numbers with more and different targets. These include makes potential consequences seem less conse- disgust, humiliation, outrage, the need to quential. In a sense, and because they focus on prove ourselves and be taken more seriously, the future, adolescents are all about progress: but also desire, love, compassion and the need Novelty is not just good, but the highest good. to be useful. Physicality takes on a new To belong to a group solves the problem of urgency, especially for males. Intensity is some- what to do, while doing stuff—anything— times sought for its own sake—ergo drugs— helps generate the next idea and, ultimately, the though quests on behalf of causes can prove next “adventure.” Vandalism is one typical kind equally exhilarating. of by-product: It provides a rush of excitement Just having or collecting experiences seems for individuals, an activity for the group and to help adolescents. Different experiences not memories to bond by. What is destroyed is only help youth learn but also to establish track immaterial. Why is even harder to explain. records. Handled correctly, any type of experi- Given the importance of belonging to a ence can be counted as an achievement. group, it is small wonder that one of the most Experiences earn youth bragging rights and, difficult balancing acts in adolescence is learn- transformed into “war stories”, help impress ing how to stand out and fit in. No one wants peers or girls (as well as other key audiences: to be odd man out. To avoid such a fate younger kids and older men). But storytelling requires conforming. Yet to be indispensable also fuels one-upmanship. With the glue for one has to bring something of one’s own to virtually all groups being shared experiences, the table. No formula exists for how to pull the more hardship, misery, daring and even off being different but not too different, and foolishness that is shared the better. Danger similar but not too similar to others in the helps. So does skirting the edge of what is group, as every group has its own composi-

The Bio-grammar of Baby-talk

he idea that IDS [infant-directed speech] is not primarily about language is support- Ted by the universality of its musical elements. Whatever country we come from and whatever language we speak, we alter our speech patterns in essentially the same way when talking to infants. . . . It is evident that those who use facial expression, gestures and utterances to stimulate and communicate with their babies are effectively moulding the infants’ brains into the appropriate shape to become effective members of human communities, whether we think of those as families or societies at large. Parents largely do this on an intuitive basis—they do not need to be taught IDS—and use music-like utterances and gestures to develop the emotional capacities of the infant prior to facili- tating language acquisition. —Steven Mithren, The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body (Harvard University Press, 2006)

SUMMER 2006 9 FROM THE WAR FILES tion and chemistry. This is why so much of It is possible that the motivator for suicide what adolescent males learn has to be experi- terrorism, for instance, is as simple (but pro- ential.2 But what camaraderie also makes pos- found and quintessentially adolescent) as “I’ll sible is belonging to something bigger and show you.” But it could also be that suicide on more important than oneself. Losing oneself behalf of a cause represents something so dar- to a group or a cause—especially in combina- ing, so extreme, so final and so explosive that, tion—not only helps an individual to tran- for those seeking the ultimate, this is it almost scend the mundane, but also to feel signifi- by definition. Because the same act can satisfy cant. This may be all the more important for any of a number of feelings or yearnings (yearn- adolescents, when hormones wreak havoc ings being even more inchoate than feelings), it with mind/body relations, and transcending seems unlikely we will ever figure out what one’s body, one’s age, and adults’ expectations entices or drives adolescent X to commit act Y. holds ineffable appeal. The trigger could be anything from a personal Escape is always possible through art, music, insult to the televised plight of imagined com- drama and sports if these are available, although rades. Herein lies the diabolical cleverness of they can also prove problematic. To earn recog- this method of tapping into adolescents: nition and keep advancing, one has to be suffi- Adolescents are not just prone to violence ciently talented. Otherwise, why continue to because violence seems to deliver what they want, but they also prime one another. The main motivator for One would think, given our own personal experiences—never mind the historical, cross- suicide terrorism may be cultural record—that we would better appreci- ate what traditional (especially tribal) societies as simple as the adolescent have long recognized: Adolescence itself is a big social problem. Traditional societies would quip, “I’ll show you.” never have developed or bothered to perfect lengthy rites of passage and methods of social control to domesticate young men if there were compete? “Why bother?”—that classic teen not some pressing need to have done so. That response to whatever teens cannot or do not need remains. Not that grievances do not mat- want to do—signals something else: rejection ter in contemporary affairs between the Muslim or rebellion. This is the flip side of sublimating world and the West—but it is far more impor- oneself to something large and noble. If we tant for us to understand that the reason they think about how adolescents often view them- matter, and how they are expressed, has every- selves—as trapped between being freer than thing to do with adolescence. children but not as autonomous as adults— then why not try to seize rewards early, by what- hen does adolescence begin and end? ever means available? This explains some of the WFor an anthropologist the answer is allure of crime, war and violence. But on the obvious: whenever society says so. Most tradi- other hand, why seek material rewards at all? tional societies demarcate entry and exit with Why not eschew possessions? Asceticism can lend itself to even greater flights of self-right- 2Lionel Tiger, Men in Groups (Random House, eous fancy.3 1969). Often adolescents do things just to test their 3As do veganism and numerous forms of environ- limits. How much can they feel, and make oth- mentalism, which fit with the kind of holier- ers feel? Sometimes, the more someone else than-thou attitude adolescents with no real seems to feel, the more this drives others to imi- responsibilities can afford to adopt. Alter- tate him. Intensity—the great evanescent natively, adolescents who lack the luxury of elixir—works like a sump. But on whom it being able to reject something they do not have works, how and to what ends, especially in het- (e.g., lots of stuff) can be just as self-righteous erogeneous societies, is impossible to predict. about poverty as a virtue.

10 THE AMERICAN INTEREST MAKING ENEMIES: AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF ISLAMIST TERROR specific rites. Along with new sets of roles, must oppose something associated with Person responsibilities and rewards may come new B—a position, belief, something he can point to dietary restrictions, new forms of dress, new as significantly and discernibly different. codes of behavior and a new place of residence Significance, difference and disernability are all (something we see, by the way, in most mili- important. To attract and retain supporters, taries). But in modern societies there are no Person A and his lieutenants must ensure that clear gates through which young men must pass others can see for themselves that B’s differ- in order to advance. This means that individu- ences from them do matter. Ideally, these als can stay in prolonged (or arrested) adoles- should matter in substantive or symbolically cence as long as they want and are financially resonant ways. able. We see such individuals all around us, not Another way to explain the dynamic is to just in the United States, but in growing mid- consider two factions. Because members of A dle classes worldwide. And if we look back at hate members of B on principle, members of A social rebels and revolutionaries through time, should dislike everything members of B stand we see that most caught fire during adolescence for. But members of A are only likely to attract and many remained firebrands their entire recruits and allies if they can de-personalize and lives. then moralize what is at stake. Once “on princi- We are all familiar with the division of rad- ple” is turned into “for the sake of principle” ical labor that generally results as time passes: potential friends do not need direct experience As rebels age they instigate rather than partic- with A’s enemies to be asked for support. But ipate in violence. They theorize, rationalize, also, with the shift from hating people for no finance, orchestrate and direct. Of course, good reason to hating them for good reason, it some extremist intellectuals might never have is just a short slide to being able to dehumanize engaged in violence, while aging thugs may them altogether and slaughter them in large still routinely participate in violent acts; but numbers. Other factors facilitate this process, we see the basic pattern over time and across but for now it is enough to observe how circu- cultures. Now we see it increasingly in Muslim lar the process of factionalization usually is: societies, as these societies collide with mod- Members of A convince themselves that B’s ernizing influences worldwide. One obvious principles are deserving of hate, even though it conclusion from this is that age affects males was really specific members of B whose behav- in similar ways. If so, then perhaps the best ior led members of A to infer what those odious societies can do is to redirect male energy principles were in the first place. when (and as) it spikes. But even were we to We see this circular process of factionaliza- (re)recognize the need to better control young tion in the schisms that have wracked males, we would still need to also do some- Christianity, as well as in splits among social thing about the second of our enablers, which revolutionaries. (It certainly holds true in acade- is independent of age: the urge to factionalize. mia, which should not be surprising since to produce conflict out of the “narcissism of small differences” takes prodigious efforts at intellec- Factionalization tualizing, rationalizing and justifying.) If one steps back and objectively considers the early oung males are not the only ones to group; debates within the Church, for instance, or Ythey simply behave differently in peer between the Church and the Lutherans, or the groups than they do when they mix with the Lutherans and the Reformed Church, it is hard rest of us. All societies are riven by factions. not to conclude that initial battles were fought Factions arise from personal rivalries writ into over relatively minor and even arbitrary issues. principles. It does not matter which comes first, Why care more about Trinitarian doctrine than genuine disagreement or interpersonal antipa- predestination, or predestination than infant thy. Actors themselves may not know. But the baptism? The amount of time, effort and single- process is clear: To make something out of a mindedness that was devoted to turning just rivalry, to create or rally a faction, Person A one matter into a breakpoint is astounding. No

SUMMER 2006 11 FROM THE WAR FILES less impressive is the relentlessness of the logic Some Kikuyu were Christian and others that was applied by each side. All of this sug- were becoming Christian. Christianization gests that theologians and Church intellectuals clearly posed a threat to local healers and other positively sought out points on which they purveyors of local traditions who had a vested wanted to differ from others, knowing that their interest in maintaining the old ways—so of opponents would oblige their desire for faction. course we would expect them to resist It is understandably difficult to find person- Christianity. Likewise we might expect tradi- al rivalry cited as the impetus for factionaliza- tionalists to make more of traditions, both to tion, for that would make defenders of differ- rally allies and to prove their own worth. ence seem petty and insufficiently principled. However, digging deeper, the willingness of But finding examples of rivalry at work once many Kikuyus to become Christian in the first factions exist is easy. For instance, in his history place suggests that Kikuyu society was never The Reformation, Diarmaid MacCulloch writes: completely united. The potential for factions to “ . . . it was what Calvin or the Reformed crystallize already existed; all the missionaries believed that decided what mainstream did was introduce a new issue over which fac- Lutheranism would pronounce as orthodoxy. If tions could coalesce. Calvin had affirmed it, then they were against There were plenty of such issues at the time in it. . . .” Or, because the non-Catholic English Kenya. No less threatening than Christianization sought to exploit the Irish, the Irish were bound was how land was being commodified, the to stick to and even make more of their socio-economic differences introduced by Catholicism. Such reactions are so common- money, and more besides. Change itself was not place that we tend to accept the fact that, when the issue, for that would suggest that Kikuyu one group tries to subjugate or influence anoth- society had always been as it was and had never er there is bound to be resistance. We pay less adopted new practices—something that does attention to what is used as the bone of con- not hold for any group of people anywhere. No; tention, than to how it is used. Whatever the it was what was changing that mattered, which bone is, it may well have mattered less than peo- explains why female circumcision in particular ple now believe it did. It may even have been came to be such a sticking point. Kikuyu tradi- invented.4 For instance, the more 19th-century tions were critical to keeping Kikuyus Kikuyu French philosophes looked to Ancient Rome as because identity is always a matter of practices their model, the more their British and German as well as beliefs. How else can people make counterparts then looked to Ancient Greece. beliefs visible? This is exactly what female cir- Each side used one set of differences to sharpen cumcision helped do: It both literally and figu- another, though any of them could have laid ratively marked young women as Kikuyu and claim to either tradition. distinguished them from the uncircumcised, unclean members of neighboring tribes. au Mau, in contrast, offers an example Corporate integrity was thus tied to this rite, as Mof what happens when a difference that was, Kikuyus believed, the long-term health always mattered suddenly matters more. It is and fertility of their society. just one of many cases that highlights what This is the pattern that produces traditional- happens when Westerners seek to change ists everywhere. When an outsider threatens a things that non-Westerners consider integral to critical practice essential to corporate integrity, their identity and moral well-being. In the he not only directly threatens the group, but mid-1900s, Christian missionaries attempted does so by making splits visible within the to squelch certain local practices—like female group over who values these things more. We circumcision—among the Kikuyu in Kenya. see this not just in Kenya, but over and over This turned female circumcision into a rallying point, and it became one of the sparks that fed 4A point made famously by E. J. Hobsbawm and the Mau Mau fires of rebellion. But on closer Terrence Ranger in their edited collection, The examination what else do we find beneath this Invention of Tradition (Cambridge University grievance? We find factions. Press, 1983).

12 THE AMERICAN INTEREST ©Bettmann/Corbis

Kikuyu women forming a home guard to defend against Mau Mau terrorism, January 1955 again in our own encounters with American servatives by the opprobrious term Indians. ‘pagan’, some of those who chose to Indian tribes were divided not just thanks to retain pride in being Iroquois felt forced outsiders, but according to blood ties and fam- to oppose everything any missionary ily relationships. Some families stuck together proposed—not merely psalm-singing no matter what, and continued to dislike others and sabbath-keeping, but also secular no matter what. The dynamic that unfolded schooling and even further material with white encroachment was that whichever improvements.6 tribal faction decided to be accommodationist first guaranteed that its rivals would turn tradi- Or, to be schematic about it: Once accommo- tionalist or nativist. Obviously, those willing to dationists chose to abandon communal sensi- abandon Indian identity were not particularly committed to tradition in the first place, which 5American authorities not only recognized the sig- proved particularly ideal for outsiders since this nificance of intra- (and not just inter-) tribal made distinguishing between “friendlies” and factionalism, but used it to their advantage as “hostiles” itself congruent with acculturation.5 often as they could. Whenever nativists How this fanned the flames of nativism can be attempted to organize any sort of pan-Indian seen in the following description of the Iroquois movement, the U.S. govermment supported in the early 1800s: regionally or tribally-based movements in order to keep Indians divided. See Gregory Evans . . . emotion drove many of the members Dowd, A Spirited Resistance: The North of the pagan party into extremely American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815 nativistic positions. Since the missionar- (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992). ies were demanding the abandonment of 6Anthony Wallace, The Death and Rebirth of the an Indian identity and calling the con- Seneca (Vintage Books, 1972 [1969]), p. 331.

SUMMER 2006 13 FROM THE WAR FILES bilities, nativists were duty-bound to defend notion of universal human rights and so on—is against accommodation. historically anomalous. It is the exception, not These splits between accommodationists the rule. Our notion that the individual should and nativists survive on Indian reservations in be the principal unit of moral and political the United States to this day. We also see them account is the source of our difference. at work abroad when, for instance, family or Exploration, science, none of the things we con- clan A in Iraq or Afghanistan wants democracy sider integral to the development of the West (or wants to “work with us”). This essentially would have been likely had individuals not been guarantees that family or clan B, to oppose encouraged to compete against one another. Nor them, will reject democracy and everything could personal progress have become (somewhat associated with it (and us), and will turn ironically) our greatest collective ambition. But increasingly nativist in the process. as David Gress points out in his history of “the West”, our individualism and the achievements it has made possible has a downside. What he Accommodationism and describes as an “acquisitive mentality combined with the tendency to view everything through Nativism quantitative, economic spectacles” is completely actionalism may be no less a function of antithetical to maintaining harmony, which is Fbeing social than adolescence is a function the preeminent goal in tradition-oriented soci- of being human. The two, of course, are also eties.7 In Arabic, for example, there is a highly linked since adolescents invariably get used by loaded and critically important term for the factions. Somewhat less clear is why adolescents absence of harmony, a state of being Muslims would avow nativist positions, given their pen- seek to avoid at nearly all costs: fitna. chant for novelty and change. But here is where Even the most benign version of liberal cap- the Indian Wars again become instructive. italism generates problems for non-Western Young warriors never fought to become societies, where redistribution rather than accu- white, only to stay Indian. At the same time, mulation is generally seen to be the highest Indian youth were not just fighting against good, where the conspicuous display of any- change and for glory or immediate gratifica- thing is frowned upon, and where individual tion. Often, even though they would not have well-being is secondary to the well-being of the put it this way, they were fighting for something group. Where harmony is the ideal, social rela- larger and more noble than themselves. Leaders tions matter. Contrast that with the West, like Captain Jack of the Modoc or Chief Joseph where we may all be headed forward in the of the Nez Perce said as much: Better to die as same general direction but do not feel tied an Indian than live as a white man. In other together in nearly the same way. words, it wasn’t just a way of life nativists were We in the West, and particularly we in fighting to preserve. From their perspective, America, underestimate the importance of soli- what they were defending was the only right or darity as an ideal—an ideal that, as the dynam- true way to live. ics of factionalization suggest, will always matter We need to be clear: Nativism is not a reac- to some members of the group more than to tion against change per se. It is a response to others. The great social scientists of Europe— accomodationists within the nativists’ own Durkheim, Marx, Weber, Simmel, Tonnies— camp (however defined) whose willingness to picked up on the radical disjunctures intro- change abrades on certain traditions and beliefs duced by changes in scale, from gemeinschaft to that threaten corporate identity and the way gesellschaft, or from village to city. Numerous people should live. Preeminently, it is others—Polanyi, Schumpeter, O’Neill—have Westernization that detonates this sort of con- charted the agonizing social adjustments and flict within non-Western societies. tradeoffs that the early modern West endured. What we in the West tend not to appreciate sufficiently is that what makes us Western— 7Gress, From Plato to NATO: The Idea of the West democracy, capitalism, scientific rationalism, our and Its Opponents (Free Press, 1998), p. 318.

14 THE AMERICAN INTEREST ©Corbis Riot control in Alexandria, circa 1882

We understand something, too, of the social- tionalists react and people turn to them in order psychological character of the romantic reaction to help them resist. to the early decades of the Industrial Westernization, which represents the most Revolution. We have an inkling of what consistently aggressive (but only fitfully violent) Westernization did in and to the West. Why, transformative force in human history, pro- then, are we so oblivious to what Westernization duces some variant of these effects everywhere. is doing in and to the non-West? This means that the threshold for people recog- Though Westernization’s effects vary accord- nizing that they have changed (or have been ing to place, the same overall principles apply: changed) too much—from what they were into Generally speaking, people are much more like- what they now are—is hard to detect. Once ly to absorb Western practices piecemeal, at begun, it cannot be clear in the slow process of their own pace, so long as they can do so with- acculturation when the point of no return is out feeling themselves fundamentally changing. reached. As with the famous metaphor of the This has several implications. For one, it means frog in boiling water, all societies recognize that entire societies do not acculturate all at acute crises and have mechanisms for dealing once or on their own. Either some coercive with them; few have mechanisms for dealing authority from without, or alternatively some with non-acute but prolonged disaster. faction from within, has to apply pressure. But When people do finally recognize they are in then, as soon as pressure to change is felt, and as serious trouble, they typically turn backwards soon as some portion of the community begins and try to scrabble back up the slippery slope. to change behavior in ways that seem to threat- They also look outwards. Invariably, tradition- en the identity of the corporate “whole”, tradi- alists will call for purification—of people, rites,

SUMMER 2006 15 FROM THE WAR FILES instruments, ideas—to restore what was. But at never had (as we’ll see). Between encroach- the same time, because the crisis is both new ment, forced assimilation, and conversion to and ambiguous, there is always some degree of Christianity, we basically forced Indians to syncretism, or borrowing from without. Those fight. In the Islamist case, conversion is less of bent on not changing will wind up changing a worry than corruption and the irreversible certain things in order not have to change what diminishment of Islam, as Islam defines itself. they regard as most sacred or essential. Thus, Islamists are loath to see Muslims treat Islam what outsiders may consider hypocritical is not; the way Christians treat Christianity. They fear traditionalists will not reject everything that young Muslims will adopt the typical Western, but only those practices they believe Western mode of thought toward faith, substi- disrupt social relations and thereby morally or tuting mere religion for a way of life, and privi- spiritually endanger them—ergo the use of per- leging materialism over spirituality. One way, fectly acceptable 21st-century weapons to then, in which Islamists fight the diminution of restore 7th-century values. Islam is to make sure that Muslim faith, identi- As a process, acts of purification and restora- ty and behavior are indistinguishably inter- tion typically take time, and here is where tradi- twined. In this way they not only live up to and tionalists encounter difficulties: They run out of embody Muhammadan ideals, but help distin- time. We see this especially clearly, again, in guish Islam from other social systems. American Indian history. By the time nativist The French anthropologist Emmanuel leaders rallied, splits among tribes and factions Todd has explored the tightness of some of within tribes were already too entrenched. Also, these linkages more boldly than most.9 As he whites kept pushing—demographically, diplo- puts it, “once removed from its anthropologi- matically, militarily, economically, religiously. cal vector, a religion loses its strength and its The onslaught was overwhelming. Given the ability to resist other doctrines.” He identifies realities of the day, complete Indian control the anthropological vector for Muslims as “the over the conditions of their acculturation was endogamous community family.” While what impossible. Even so, they put up a considerable he specifically refers to might be too much of fight: an idealized type, extended families or lineag- es, not individuals, do remain the unit of Indian prophets arose not singly but in account and accountability throughout the groups, and in doing so they integrated Middle East and beyond. Islam does nothing dissidents of various peoples into far- to break down communal bonds; instead it flung and often militant networks. . . . seeks to expand them to the entire umma, and The shared understanding, by peoples of the ubiquity of bloodprice, bridewealth, widely separated regions, of symbols honor killings and other customary institu- whose meanings sprang out of deeper tions bear witness to the power and pull of col- understandings of the workings of the world, provided an essential principle for 8Dowd, A Spirited Resistance, p. xix. the pan-Indian movement of the late 9Todd, The Explanation of Ideology: Family eighteenth and early nineteenth cen- Structures and Social Systems, trans. David turies. The principle was that the power Garrioch (Basil Blackwell, 1985). Todd argues, of the British and Anglo-American for instance, that “the Christian world embod- invaders could be met with sacred ied the ideal of exogamy, the Muslim world power.8 that of endogamy. Two monotheistic forms of universalism confronted each other, trapped by an anthropological difference.” Family struc- Why Islam? ture and inheritance rules consequently have had all sorts of impacts on compatibility and his should sound familiar. It could almost incompatibility with different regime types. Tbe a description of al-Qaeda, except that Essentially, he argues, the Western-style state al-Qaeda possesses advantages the Indians cannot work well for Muslims.

16 THE AMERICAN INTEREST MAKING ENEMIES: AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF ISLAMIST TERROR lective obligations and responsibilities. From Taiping Rebellion. So did French and this perspective it should be evident that what Communist revolutionaries. Indeed, the litera- threatens Islam’s vector—the primacy of the ture suggests that organized forces unleash ter- group over the individual—is individuation, ror and engage in atrocities for a range of rea- which is Westernization’s vector. sons, most of them surprisingly specific. Of course, Islamists do not explain their Sometimes when one side cannot draw its reaction to Westernization in quite these terms. opponent into the kind of battle where it can But they do stress the superiority of their reli- impose its will, atrocities occur. Atrocities are gious values and way of life over ours, and also likely at the hands of undisciplined or ill- despite the almost endless Western commen- disciplined forces that may engage in one- tary that emphasizes their hatred, hostility, dis- upmanship among themselves. This would be illusionment, humiliation, envy, fear and more typical of gangs than armies. But mili- resentment, Islamist fervor is very much for taries also tend to act restrained whenever there Islam, not just against us. If we would only lis- is the likelihood of negotiating an end to the ten more closely to Muslims themselves, we war. Then it is better to be nice than nasty, not would hear a different set of negative judgments only because you want to negotiate from a posi- than those we keep hearing from Western com- tion of moral strength, but because the fighting mentators (and their Freudian interpreters). can always recur and you might end up on the Many of these judgments have to do with revul- wrong end of a bayonette. sion. Take our profligate Western practices and behaviors concerning human sexuality, for Islamist fervor is very instance. Many Muslims consider them sinful, disgusting and an affront. It is not jealousy that much for Islam, not they generate, but disdain. Unfortunately, because this does not square with what we think just against us. Muslims should feel, we miss why Islamists view us as corrosive agents, and a contaminant that demands removal. If, however, a war involves identity, and Interestingly, the traditional method for combatants fear that their whole community combating evil, whether it comes in the form of will be wiped out if they lose, distinctions temptation, corruption, contamination or pol- between combatants and non-combatants not lution, is to exorcise and purify—exactly what only become irrelevant to them, but everyone nativists prescribe in order to revitalize society. who represents the other side is presumed to It is no coincidence that the Ayatollah pose a threat and has to be considered fair Khomeini spoke of the “de-toxification” of game. Not surprisingly, “no mercy” is exactly Muslim society from its Western habits. the attitude we see displayed in virtually all reli- Revitalization itself is useful because it either gious wars in the past, where the “polluting helps unite large numbers of people or, alterna- enemy” was considered “outside the range of tively, separates out those weak enough to suc- human beings to whom one owes the slightest cumb to acculturation from those strong obligation as fellow creatures.”11 This suggests enough to resist. This, in turn, can yield an that where notions of moral pollution loom increasingly self-righteous nativist core which, large we should expect to see the dehumaniza- to prove its points, will engage in ever greater tion and demonization of enemies, atrocities acts of cleansing, purification and self-sacrifice. and what we would regard as sickening cruel- In the current context this, too, helps explain suicide terrorism. 10Parker, Success is Never Final: Empire, War and Over time, many Indian tribes also gave up Faith in Early Modern Europe (Basic Books, on what Geoffrey Parker calls “the etiquette of 2002). atrocity”—and indulged in terror acts.10 11See Barrington Moore, Jr., Moral Purity and Protestants and Catholics did the same in the Persecution in History (Princeton University Thirty Years’ War. So did the leaders of the Press, 2000), p. 57.

SUMMER 2006 17 FROM THE WAR FILES

come in the next This al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia issue) is that those poster from this past win- who fought to ter’s Iraqi election campaign stay communal links participation in and tribal in the Western-inspired democrat- prior centuries ic processes with apostasy to Islam. The banner across the never had what top is the last part of a they needed in Quranic verse (Surat Al- order to prevail. Maida, verse 44), which Typically, they translates, “Whosoever does had neither the not judge according to what organizational God has sent down, those capacity, pre-exist- are the infidels.” The four ing ideology nor Arabic words on the road- unifying religion way leading through the to quickly tie scorched landscape to the actors together broken cross translate as across tribal and “constitution”, “democra- cy”, “elections”, and “un- spatial divides. belief.” That, as much as anything, is what ultimately helped ties. Terrorism, therefore, need not signal weak- the West subdue non-Western peoples. It’s what ness, desperation or a lack of conventional capa- also helped Americans shatter successive pan- bility only: It could instead reflect a deep-seated Indian movements in North America. In con- response to fears of contagion and pollution. trast, the Islamist enemies we face today not To the extent this describes nativist reactions only have all of these means and more, but they and is one set of motives behind al-Qaeda (and also possess a sophisticated, even intimate who-knows-how-many enemies to come), we familiarity with us. Couple that with the specter face a challenge we have met before—on our of their attaining weapons of mass destruction own soil, a long time ago. However, one critical and this may not be just a long war, but an difference worth remarking here (with more to increasingly difficult one.

Nativists and Accommodationists: An Iranian Case

he state of Muslim society today is such that . . . false saints prevent Islam from exert- Ting its proper influence; acting in the name of Islam, they are inflicting damage upon Islam. The roots of this group that exists in our society are to be found in the centers of the religious institution. . . . They will oppose anyone who tells the people: “Come now, awaken! Let us not live under the banners of others! Let us not be subject to the imposi- tion of Britain and America! Let us not allow Israel to paralyze the Muslims!” . . . Do not keep silent at a time when Islam is being destroyed, Islam is being wiped out. . . . —Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Program for the Establishment of an Islamic Government (1970)

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