Bedfellows

1
Bedfellows

• Global Agenda 2002
• Ralph Begleiter

2
Strange bedfellows

• 1988 - Arafat considered a terrorist by the US
• Banned from the UN in NY

• 1993 - Arafat considered a peacemaker
• Later, a Nobel Peace prize winner

3
Strange bedfellows

• 1982 - Sharon invades Lebanon to expel Arafat,
  the terrorist

• 2002 - Sharon declares Arafat irrelevant
• then agrees to negotiate after burst of
  Palestinian terrorism

4
Strange bedfellows

• US has Syria on its terrorism list of
  state-sponsors
  
• Even while maintaining US policy of no
  negotiations with terrorists
  
• US regularly negotiates with Syria

5
Strange bedfellows

• Why is Syria a bedfellow of the US?
• Because
• it shares a long border with a NATO ally
  (Turkey)
  
• shares a long border with Iraq
• shares a contentious border with Israel
• shares a long border with a US friend, Jordan

6
Strange bedfellows

• Kurdish terrorists attack Turkeys govt
• sometimes from Syrian territory
• Turkey is US ally
• But! Kurds in northern Iraq are protected by US
  military
  
• Kurdish terrorists also attack Iraqs govt

7
Strange bedfellows

• Pakistan - accused of (not-so) secretly backing
  terrorists operating inside India
  
• Pakistan - accused by the US of building nuclear
  weapons
  
• But! Criticism of Pakistan is muted when the US
  needs an ally after Sept 11, 2001

8
Strange bedfellows

• Imagine the criticism of Pakistan if terrorists
  killed Americans in a church in Karachi before
  9/11?
  
• Criticism muted when it happened last week
  (3/2002)

9
Strange bedfellows

• El Salvador - 1980s
• US trained equipped government troops fighting
  communist rebels
  
• Salvadoran military leader Roberto DAubuisson
  organized death squads to kill opposition
  sympathizers
  
• US declined to call this terrorism

10
Strange bedfellows

• US backed rebels seeking to overthrow the
  communist govt of Nicaragua - 1980s
  
• Reagan called them freedom fighters

11
So what?

• Strange bedfellows make terrorism hard to
  define
  
• cause shifts in policy on terrorism as
  political circumstances change
  
• cause US policy to appear inconsistent
  (especially to non-Americans)
  
• which makes allies in a war against terrorism
  hard to keep

12
Bedfellows

• Global Agenda 2002
• Ralph Begleiter