No, this won't be a religious discussion, just a lesson in physics involving Newton's Third Law of Motion which states, "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." How does that relate to America today? Well, let's call the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled with recent military incursions in Pakistan the "action." And now we are beginning to experience the "equal and opposite reaction"; it's called blowback.
Here are just a few examples that illustrate the beginning stages of this blowback that is happening within our borders as agents of vengeance from foreign nations and our own home-grown American variety bring terror to our society: Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan citizen by birth, now a naturalized American citizen, was arrested in September 2009 and accused of planning suicide bombings in the New York subway system.
On Christmas Day 2009, a Nigerian citizen was thwarted in an attempt to destroy a plane flying into Detroit. He would have succeeded except for his amateurish attempt to ignite an explosive device. Just recently Faisal Shahzad, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, placed an SUV loaded with propane tanks, fertilizer, gasoline and fireworks in Times Square with the intent to set off a timed explosion; the crude bomb did not go off and he has since been apprehended trying to fly out of the country.
Some day our government and our president may finally understand that when nations and their citizens are invaded and occupied that, at some point, the people will retaliate in vengeful ways that bring great harm to America. Did the leadership of America actually think that the nations and the people who were on the receiving end of "shock and awe" would passively accept it? That there would be no blowback?
When Bush invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the rallying cry at that time was, "we have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here." Now, while we are busy fighting them over there we have Americans citizens, aptly named "homegrown terrorists", popping out of the woodwork attempting to fight us here.
The actions being taken by our military in foreign nations is analogous to someone who takes a huge club and strikes a hornet or wasp nest to totally destroy it. Then those who have been attacked will strike back with a vengeance and will use stealth and cover to inflict their own terrible payback.
One might ask how we ever got to this point, why did our government not anticipate what might happen after it took such drastic actions as invading other countries that it believed housed terrorists? The U.S. government, specifically the CIA, has for decades dealt with terrorists or various "other enemies" using covert operations. But when the Bush/Cheney gang of blood thirst war hawks initiated these actions they replaced covert operations with invasions and occupations using the might of our armed forces; a classic example of overkill that will, in the end - if that ever comes - cost us trillions.
Attorney General Eric Holder just recently announced that the Pakistan Taliban is known to have been behind the Times Square bombing; "We know that they helped facilitate it; we know that they helped direct it," said Holder. "And I suspect that we are going to come up with evidence which shows that they helped to finance it. They were intimately involved in this plot." While he has made a very quick judgment, he could very well be right.
If Mr. Obama, a strong proponent of the use of these deadly drones (I call them WCD's, weapons of civilian destruction), thinks that the people on the receiving end of hellfire missiles that have killed hundreds of innocent civilians won't find some way to retaliate against the U.S. then he needs to wake up to the fact that it's already happening. We are watching as a new unwanted, unplanned chapter has been opened in the war on terror and it's now taking place on American soil.
So, who is responsible for this newest threat to America where we now will be subject to blowback from new enemies, both foreign and domestic? Without a doubt, it is the Bush/Cheney administration that started the entire process. But, you know what? The Obama administration is just as responsible, as it had the chance to head it off before it could take root by reversing the military policies of Bush. But, did they? Absolutely not and because of that President Obama must now accept full responsibility for the turmoil that is surely going to come our way.
America is standing on the brink of a monumental domestic problem, one that has the potential to create a living nightmare for our society if this insidious movement spreads. Mr. Obama must understand that the only way that this situation can be remedied is by bringing an end to our current occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan and our escalating military operations in Pakistan. Nothing less will be able to stop this movement.
If he continues to follow current military policies and strategies and allows our military and the CIA to use deadly drones to spread terror among the Afghan and Pakistani civilian populations, then we will find that the war on terror, designed to be conducted in foreign lands, will backfire and generate the worst kind of equal and opposite reaction; blowback.
Michael Payne
