Fanatical Terrorism versus Disciplines of Constitutional Democracy

Fanatical terrorism of 11 September 2001 wiped out already-shaken illusions of American invulnerability. Far more, this epochal attack made it clear that asymmetrical threats beyond conventional understanding are now powerful challenges to enlightened civilization globally. That is, the enemy differs enormously in organization, methods of attack, and defense from nation-state opponents in past warfare, in which opposing forces were more-or-less matched symmetrically. The assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were atrocities that were deliberately visited upon internationally best-known symbols. In short, these horrific attacks targeted not simply American buildings and people; they struck hard at world civilization, challenging social, economic, and political frameworks designed to facilitate human dignity and justice under disciplined standards of reasonableness. This was one day of actions in an ongoing war that has been waged internationally for over two decades already by fanatical terrorists. It was not a new declaration of war, except in the magnitude of the devastating abandon in this targeting of the American homeland. Deliberate killing or an attempt upon the being of a single innocent person to inspire fear and convey a political message is terrorism; this was killing by backers of 19 terrorist hijackers of some 7,601 people (the 28 September count), plus the infliction of some 6,000 other casualties in one assault in the name of divinely sanctioned action: religious-political fanaticism! Clearly now, if it was not previously understood, this war is not between alternative civilizations. It is between civilization and its antithesis. Unconventional in key respects, should it earn the title of World War III? Five dimensions of this struggle are discussed below. First, the character of people's immediate and sustained response is noted: shared faith, grief, and renewed sanctification of moral foundations of civilized conduct. Second, constitutionally democratic civilization's twin responsibilities of civic duty (personal self-governance committed to the common good) and public service (military and civil service, including political service) are discussed, drawing on examples during and following 11 September. Third, terrorists' fanatical actions of recent decades are recalled. Counterterrorism is distinguished from the cultural corruption of vengeful retaliation, including the eye-for-an-eye (tit-for-tat) killing and destruction that intensify today's dire companions of hatred and fear. Fourth, attention is called to connections with world conflicts of two contemporary paradoxes: localization and globalization and poverty amid plenty. Final commentary deals briefly with the challenges of reconciling today's ideals of Interdependent Facilitative States with the new reality of an Antiterrorist Garrison State in America. How can an antiterrorist war be fought and won on behalf of enduring facilitation of civilization of valued diversity and constructively connected humanity? Grief and Sanctification of Civilization's Moral Foundations By many measures, a globally historic one-day high was scored on 11 September by dogmatic ideology and wickedly inflamed hate. This terrorism was a proclamation against the shared respect for the higher authority of civilization that inspires self-confidence balanced by respectful humility in being human. It contradicted what people of many faiths and humane persuasions embrace together as ennobling higher law and enduring responsibility for civilization building among humankind--what constitutional democracy practices as a search, through a rule of law, for reasonableness and human dignity. All but the most bitterly hard-hearted and fanatically indoctrinated must weep through eternity not simply from private and shared human feelings experienced but because of the compelling dark thought and meanings of such fanatical terrorism. Disciplines of humble and confident faith and of constitutional democracy--human caring, civic duty, and public service, most particularly--scored much higher than terrorism in September. …