Colombia: America Reaps What It Sowed

Antonio Caballero, Semana (centrist newsmagazine), Bogotá, Sept. 14, 2001.

The double attack, which left thousands dead, provoked horror, of course. And shock, which is less understandable, for it was a matter of course. The attack was a predictable advance in the methods of terrorism, which has always been what the weak use to make war upon the strong. Almost 50 years ago, an Algerian fighting for independence explained it: “We plant bombs in supermarkets in Paris because we do not have airplanes to bomb French cities, while the French have airplanes, so they bomb Algerian towns.” The advance was that instead of putting a bomb in a passenger plane, the terrorists decided to use a passenger plane itself as a bomb.

This is natural progress, of course, in the war between the strong and the weak. It was only natural that after a half century of the American government devastating cities around the world—Tokyo, Dresden, Hiroshima, Korean villages, Hanoi, Beirut, Panama, Tripoli, Kabul, Baghdad, Belgrade—it would be New York and Washington’s turn to experience horror. They have spent their whole lives sowing rancor through the world; they should not be surprised now by what they are reaping.