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Editor's
note: The views are those of the author and not of any agency
of the U.S. government.
 he
British prime minister has been welcomed in Teheran (where one of
the reformist dailies has opined that "probably now is the
best time to help return the legal government of Afghanistan back
to power"), and the Russian president has signaled his assent
to the American use of military bases in the former Soviet Union.
One can only
imagine that bin Laden and his sponsors are all having the same
thought right now: It wasn't supposed to be this way.
Of course,
the Russians have their own reasons for seizing the moment and seeking
a breakthrough with the Americans at this point in history, not
the least of which that President Vladimir Putin is gaining a certain
amount of immunity from Western criticism for his own war against
Chechen terrorists in Russia. (And yes, they're terrorists, not
"rebels." Rebels don't take hospitals hostage, terrorists
do.) The Iranian opening to the British — an enemy they despise
as much as they do America — may reflect only a temporary alliance
directed against the Taliban, or perhaps is the result of a split
among Iran's ruling clerics in which the reformers hold the upper
hand for the moment. But it is, as Jack Straw rightly said, an historic
event.
The fact that
regimes like Russia, China, Iran, Syria, and others are committing
themselves, at least nominally, to aiding the emerging coalition
against terror suggests that a fundamental realignment of international
life might be underway. It may well be that among states addicted
to the poison of terror, the horrific scale of the attacks on New
York and Washington have produced what alcoholics call a "moment
of clarity," a sudden realization of the need to change old
habits.
This doesn't
mean that these regimes will now share our values, although I would
argue Russia was well along the path to democracy and Putin's latest
efforts need to be energetically embraced. Rather, it suggests that
September 11, 2001 created a moment of pause, in which traditional
enemies of the United States have stopped to consider whether this
is the last chance to turn away from their own past, and to ask
whether their own disagreements with our values or our policies
must necessarily include support for the mass extermination of innocents.
Some years
ago, I was at a conference devoted to the question of European unification.
An older man, a veteran of World War II, stood up and expressed
severe concern about the recreation of a united German state. He
had fought the Nazis, he said: Why should he trust the Germans now?
There was an embarrassed silence, since a senior German diplomat
was sitting on the panel with us. Finally, a wise American professor
(there are a few left) spoke up, and said quietly: "Because
I believe in redemption."
If the slaughter
at the Twin Towers and the Pentagon has produced a moment of reflection
that leads, even momentarily, to a move toward redemption among
states that once supported terrorism, then the terrorists will have
failed beyond even their most pessimistic fears. State sponsors
of terror have an opportunity to join with the United States, but
it is not a window that remain open indefinitely. At some point,
they will have to decide, as President Bush has warned, that they
are with us or with the terrorists, and time is soon to be upon
them.
At the moment,
such regimes should be transfixed by two sets of images. One is
the endlessly looped tape of the attacks in New York, dramatic footage
that few people with any conscience, save for a psychopath like
Saddam Hussein, can watch dispassionately. The other is a chart
tallying the current amount of Western firepower gathering in the
Gulf and elsewhere, a display of might that could only fail to impress
— and worry — the most delusional leaders. (Did I mention
Saddam Hussein?) The road marked by these two images is clear: Take
the path of redemption, if not for the sake of human decency, then
for the sake of self-preservation. Moscow has thrown its lot in
with the West because its president and its people have decided
that they are part of the human family, and no longer in league
with pariahs. Other states may have less noble reasons for taking
the same road, but if they show the good sense to take it nonetheless,
the war on terror will take a leap toward eventual victory.
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