The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism

Many of the books to come out in the aftermath of 9/11 tried to look at the new (to Americans) phenomenon of terror attacks in the context of that attack - meaning in terms of a religious only context. Now that some time has passed, Carr brings us the movement of terrorism as a political tool. He does an excellent job providing an overview of the development of terrorism as a continuum from the late19th century Russian movement to try to violently assassinate Alexander II thus bringing down the stardom. He acknowledges that one man's terrorist can be another man's freedom fighter, especially as he wades into more populist terror activities such as in Northern Ireland, and Lebanon. In the work Carr shows the common threads that bind together all the terror movements, be they radical Marxist, Algerian or Argentinean opponents of government or the more modern religious based terrorism of Al-Qaeda or suicide bombings in Israel. This terrorism is not examined out of context, and Carr spends a lot of time contrasting the terrorists with the responses of established governments in efforts to root out the terrorists, even to the point of adopting terrorist tactics in order to sway public opinion against the terrorists. Some readers may not agree with Carr's dim view of terrorism vs. state military action - how blowing up a civilian building by an individual is terrorist while the strategic bombing of civilian buildings by the military is acceptable. This view may rankle some but to Carr's credit he consistently applies it across the board. Some of the terrorist movements he writes about may to some point be "understandable" to the author, he does not romanticize them. In a world where even a body like the U.N. cannot agree upon a definition of terrorism, and thus cannot fully condemn it, Carr attempts to cut through the language and his definition, and by applying it to modern history shows the definition of terrorism is a moving target, albeit one with common threads. You may not agree with all that is said, but you will get a much better idea of how terrorism has come to be a force in the modern world.

I felt strangely comforted by the realizations I gained from "The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism." It contextualizes our present struggle. Don't expect to find a final all-encompassing theory on terrorism here. Rather, you may experience an almost religious acceptance of the inevitable struggle. It's as if Matthew Carr is taking the Hindu god Vishnu's point of view. Once in awhile Carr does force a more dogmatic perspective on the reader. Raising a question here and there would have been more effective. Perhaps he could have saved his conclusions and beliefs for a final chapter. Though Carr is more critical of the status quo powers, the counter-terrorists, I felt the total effect of his judgment was to redress an imbalance. One is left amazed by the variety and differences in individuals, groups, and causes, and their matching and usually more terroristic counter-terrorists. Some similarities Carr reiterates throughout the book: 1. Remember the number of people killed by terrorists is relatively small. Terrorists who become the government, such as in the Soviet Union under communism, or governments who practice (counter)terrorism themselves, kill many many more people. One major criticism: Carr does not address the fact that sometimes the terrorists win! Although if, following his approach, the Tsar, for example, had addressed the legitimate grievances of his people and understood the need for change...things would have been different. However, it is intellectually irresponsible to ignore the Communist takeover when your discussion of terrorism is based on the very movements that led to it. 2. Always flesh out the facts--the full story. It's important to learn as much as possible about the situation, motives etc. of "terrorists." Each group, each individual, has a story that provides a bit more of the puzzle of a particular time and cultural/political situation. Symbolism is central--behavior as message, often preceded or followed by words. Reflecting on the symbolism is a way to "connect the dots" or make sense of a seemingly senseless behavior--not to excuse it but to understand the "other," and yourself. Perhaps if we understand them, we will finally "get" them. 3. The language of the government uses is often a smoke screen that hides and distorts the facts. 4. Terrorism will always finally remain a mystery. Why did these particular people decide at this time that they had to take these particular horrific actions? The mystery at the center of terrorism raises the questions: Do they understand the larger forces behind their choices. Do we understand our reactions? One is left starring into a void. Carr's approach has a strong affinity with Jungian psychology, applied not to individuals so much as to whole societies and political situations. The dark side must be met. Mortal combat continues unless we go deeper into the pathology of our own behavior, the contradictions of our rhetoric. Countries and "civili

This is a superb book that should be read in conjunction with Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. Terrorism is nothing more nor less than individual and small group asymmetric violence that breaks the state's monopoly on violence. THe author is to be commended for stating in blunt and ably-documented terms that terrorism is a logical asymmetric response and it is not senseless nor cowardly but rather coherent and calculated. I share the author's view that most Western analysts of terrorism are witness, uninformed, and devoid of historical, cultural, or contextual analytic skills and knowledge. Most on the right, including the Zionists, push their ideological beliefs rather than the empirical evidence. As the author notes, Israel has genocided the Palestinians and out-terrorized their opponents time and again (while also attacking the USS Liberty, a war crime that will never be forgotten by our men and women in uniform). There are other books that have documents the use by the extreme right of fake leftist terrorist actions that are actually extreme right and fascist actions intended to increase the totalitarian and fascist nature of the state. 9-11 certainly enabled Dick Cheney to do that. See American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America and Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency. In the author's view, the CIA created the conditions for the Islamic jihad with its over-turning of the Iranian election results and restoration of the hated Shah to the throne--as we learn in Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, CIA has been all too fond of dictators and secret police as their proxies; its presence in Saudi Arabia (ably covered by Robert Baer in Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude, and of course providing billions in aid (see Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times that the Pakistani's used to create jihad with close ties to Afghan drugs, guns, and global logistics. The author makes three key points in his conclusion: 1) USG ignores and does not publicize the thousands of acts of civil dissent, including hundreds (as many as 900) bombs a year across America; 2) The government consistently lies to the public and covers up larger group anger by claiming that major incidents are "a lone wolf" operation. This has since been proven untrue for the JFK assassination (see Someone Would Have Talked: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Conspiracy to Mislead History and A Farewell to Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK's Assassination, And the Case That Should Have Changed History, and in the Oklahoma City bombing and most certainly in the 9-11 case where CHeney, Gulliani, and Silverstein and Rumsfeld are clearly more culpable than Bin Laden or the Pakistanis for the bulk of the deats (see Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics a

Descriptions, explanations, and histories of terrorism have been "one-eyed" - lacking depth perception and without perspective to find their way. History has been written by the establishment and terror defined to exclude "state terrorism". Worse still, accounts have covered up actions that have been government provocation and extreme measures that inspired escalation of conflict. Anger, fear, labeling undermine any hope of truth and understanding. Strong simplistic answers meet emotional needs and belief is inversely proportional to facts and analysis. The very language of reporting misleads and corrupts implying responsibility and guilt. One would not sense that Israel used every method of terror before the Palestinians did excepting suicide bombing, or that civilian deaths of Palestinians have generally been at least six times as high as Israelis. Israel was founded on successful terror and several Prime Ministers were active with the Stern Gang, Irgun, and other elements. The School for the Americas (renamed but not discontinued) has trained thousands of state terrorists in Latin America. The Contras are terrorists too. Carr at least mentions such things, albeit not greatly emphasizing them. That in itself is a great improvement over "politically correct" writing that is more common. Terrorism is a strategy of the weak, politically driven, identity based, associated with nationalism and sometimes justified by religion. Violent suppression may reinforce a sense of moral justification. Often terrorism eventually works, discredits governments, and conflict is resolved - counter intuitively - by negotiation and compromise. Carr briefly tells of terror in the French Revolution then Imperial Russia where, after the introduction of dynamite, the "infernal machine", the bomb, became the tool enhancing the capacity for resistance from minorities committed to a cause believed to be just. A terrorist assassination was a major immediate cause of World War I (hardly more "civilized" than terrorism?). Cases include Ireland, Mau Mau, Basques, Red Brigades, Japan, Palestine, Israel, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Nicaragua, and others. Many examples are vaguely familiar and here become 3-D and Technicolor. Some lessons can be drawn regarding the political nature of terror, relative success as a strategy for the weak, and blowback of most efforts at suppression. But summaries of key examples rather than a `political science' analysis is the focus. The perspective and openness retelling both sides are what make the book distinctive and valuable. The greater objectivity is greater value.

Carr in this book details that citizens of a nation should have more to fear from the counter terrorism measures their governments take than the terrorism they seek to eradicate. In most of the cases mentioned in the book the military counter measures have killed a hundred, if not a thousand, times more people than the terrorist acts that created the emergency. It is a salutary lesson for us that those who would save our civilization are not only more capable of violent actions, but given their control of the military they are more lethal than the terrorists. No one espouses that states should not confront violent elements within their realm, however in many cases the cure has been more lethal to the average citizen than the desease. Destroying the values that make a civilization in order to save it makes for a perverse logic that actually does the terrorists work for them.