Sept. 11, Al-Qaida and the Tea Party
Where are the moderate Muslims? Where are the leaders of this great religion that don’t share the theological corruption, the objectives and, much less, the homicidal and suicidal passion of al-Qaida? This question was intensely debated after the attacks of Sept. 11.
Today, 10 years later, there is another, equally valid question: Where are the moderate leaders of the U.S. Republican Party? An extremist minority has also captured this group — a minority that, according to polls, does not represent the ideals, objectives and methods that have historically defined the Republican cause. Obviously, the extremists of the tea party are not assassins, and their influence owes to the support they have gained within the democratic system of the U.S. But the reality is this group of powerful radicals is — owing to reasons and methods very different to those of al-Qaida — a source of international instability.
Not long ago, the leaders of the tea party came close to producing a global economic catastrophe, and if able to, they would veto any proposal to tackle global warming. These are just two examples, but there are many more. Therefore, it is just as urgent to find moderate leaders within the Republican Party capable of countering the influence of the tea party as it is to find Muslim leaders who repudiate terrorism.
Looked at a decade later, the attacks of Sept. 11 produced three reactions in the U.S.: military reprisal, territorial defense and national reflection. The first led to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the second to a massive effort to strengthen borders and protect citizens from further attacks. Both also implied the expansion of intelligence activities devoted to the obtaining — in any part of the world and by any means — the information necessary to jail or eliminate terrorists. The third reaction was to try to understand the causes of Islamic terrorism and the best strategy to avoid the proliferation of the ideas and methods of al-Qaida. This led to the recognition of the necessity of encouraging legitimate Muslim leaders to serve as a counterweight against the nihilistic and murderous project of a small group of fanatics.
Al-Qaida’s project is still underway. We may hope that, thanks to the Arab spring, leaders may emerge who are more committed to the fight against poverty, injustice and the underdevelopment of their own societies than with the project of killing innocents in New York, Madrid or London. This doesn’t mean that al-Qaida and other Islamic terrorist groups have stopped being a threat.
But to this threat we must add another: the influence wielded by a minority group over the most powerful country in the world — a minority group with obscurantist ideas and policies that, if adopted, would destabilize the superpower, as well as the rest of the world.
Rick Perry, for example, is the governor of Texas, and polls indicate he may be the presidential candidate of the Republican Party. Perry thinks the Social Security system of the U.S. is unconstitutional and should be abolished. He has also said that he does not doubt the guilt of 234 people sentenced to death in Texas during his time as governor, and that no innocent person could be sentenced — and executed — by mistake. The statistics, nevertheless, do not justify such certainty. Perry, on the other hand, does doubt the conclusions of the overwhelming majority of scientists who think the planet is warming. And it’s not just Rick Perry. These days, to be influential in the Republican Party, it is necessary to question Darwin, insult Keynes, obstruct any effort to make it more difficult to buy a machine gun and defend abstinence as the only acceptable method to avoid teenage pregnancy. In economics, international relations, social welfare or national security, the only positions acceptable to the tea party are extreme and, frequently, at odds with available data.
The paradox, I repeat, is that the tea party is a long way from representing the ideas of the great majority of Republicans. As such, it is urgent that leaders emerge who move the Party and its positions toward an agenda that, while maintaining the conservative values of the Republicans, modernize these values, moderate the radicalism that has been imposed and offer proposals that inspire confidence in the rationality of one of the most powerful political groups on the planet.
Today, 10 years later, there is another, equally valid question: Where are the moderate leaders of the U.S. Republican Party? An extremist minority has also captured this group — a minority that, according to polls, does not represent the ideals, objectives and methods that have historically defined the Republican cause. Obviously, the extremists of the tea party are not assassins, and their influence owes to the support they have gained within the democratic system of the U.S. But the reality is this group of powerful radicals is — owing to reasons and methods very different to those of al-Qaida — a source of international instability.
Not long ago, the leaders of the tea party came close to producing a global economic catastrophe, and if able to, they would veto any proposal to tackle global warming. These are just two examples, but there are many more. Therefore, it is just as urgent to find moderate leaders within the Republican Party capable of countering the influence of the tea party as it is to find Muslim leaders who repudiate terrorism.
Looked at a decade later, the attacks of Sept. 11 produced three reactions in the U.S.: military reprisal, territorial defense and national reflection. The first led to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the second to a massive effort to strengthen borders and protect citizens from further attacks. Both also implied the expansion of intelligence activities devoted to the obtaining — in any part of the world and by any means — the information necessary to jail or eliminate terrorists. The third reaction was to try to understand the causes of Islamic terrorism and the best strategy to avoid the proliferation of the ideas and methods of al-Qaida. This led to the recognition of the necessity of encouraging legitimate Muslim leaders to serve as a counterweight against the nihilistic and murderous project of a small group of fanatics.
Al-Qaida’s project is still underway. We may hope that, thanks to the Arab spring, leaders may emerge who are more committed to the fight against poverty, injustice and the underdevelopment of their own societies than with the project of killing innocents in New York, Madrid or London. This doesn’t mean that al-Qaida and other Islamic terrorist groups have stopped being a threat.
But to this threat we must add another: the influence wielded by a minority group over the most powerful country in the world — a minority group with obscurantist ideas and policies that, if adopted, would destabilize the superpower, as well as the rest of the world.
Rick Perry, for example, is the governor of Texas, and polls indicate he may be the presidential candidate of the Republican Party. Perry thinks the Social Security system of the U.S. is unconstitutional and should be abolished. He has also said that he does not doubt the guilt of 234 people sentenced to death in Texas during his time as governor, and that no innocent person could be sentenced — and executed — by mistake. The statistics, nevertheless, do not justify such certainty. Perry, on the other hand, does doubt the conclusions of the overwhelming majority of scientists who think the planet is warming. And it’s not just Rick Perry. These days, to be influential in the Republican Party, it is necessary to question Darwin, insult Keynes, obstruct any effort to make it more difficult to buy a machine gun and defend abstinence as the only acceptable method to avoid teenage pregnancy. In economics, international relations, social welfare or national security, the only positions acceptable to the tea party are extreme and, frequently, at odds with available data.
The paradox, I repeat, is that the tea party is a long way from representing the ideas of the great majority of Republicans. As such, it is urgent that leaders emerge who move the Party and its positions toward an agenda that, while maintaining the conservative values of the Republicans, modernize these values, moderate the radicalism that has been imposed and offer proposals that inspire confidence in the rationality of one of the most powerful political groups on the planet.
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