Now we see a new type of warfare emerging, one that has no clearly marked battlefield and that makes no distinction between civilians and the military.
We thought that solely New York's towers were targeted and that the bell tolled for America only. Now we can hear it tolling for Russia, as well. Over the past two weeks, the nation has lost hundreds to suicide bombings and hostage-takings, with most of the victims being children, women, and elderly people. None of these was planning to die. But terrorists had preplanned their deaths for them.
The most frightening thing to this new type of warfare is that it is religiously motivated and that it recruits its soldiers on the basis of faith, not ideology. Almost all of the known terrorists are Moslems, who adhere to the world's youngest and most vibrant religion. Incidentally, the Koran considers Jesus to be a Moslem prophet. From today's perspective, it looks like Christ was the first hostage to the jihad, or the Islamic holy war.
Compared with the divided and weary Christian community, the Moslem faithful come across as a close-knit army ready to launch a new offensive any minute. One has to keep in mind that the West has been attacked not by oriental street beggars, but by oil barons. By buying petroleum, we have turned ourselves into a snake gobbling its own tail.
Politicians are still reluctant to acknowledge what ordinary people in Chechnya, Nagorny Karabakh, Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel recognized a long time ago - the West has launched its anti-terror war in an attempt to defend itself, to draw a new Maginot line as far from home as possible.
Russia has just joined in this defensive war. The Russian Army Chief-of-Staff announced a couple of days ago that the country's military would now launch preemptive strikes against terrorists in any part of the world. Which means that the battleground will expand beyond the Caucasus and the Middle East, to embrace the whole of Central Asia.
Terror is imposing uncivilized methods of warfare upon civilized countries. It won't be long before the last few unwritten laws of combat are abolished. Then, the war will step from the street into people's hearts.... This is where the real danger lies; this is something we must not allow to happen even in our night dreams.
