The Good 5 Cent Cigar

Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Alexandra Gifford Professor Marc Genest from the U.S. Naval War College presented "The Global War on Terrorism" at the forensics lecture in Pastore Hall Friday afternoon.

10/23/07 - Dr. Marc Genest, a former professor of international politics at the University of Rhode Island and an adjunct professor at the U.S. Naval War College, came to Pastore Hall on Friday to discuss the finer points of terrorism and also strategies and tactics terrorists use to carry out their cause.

Genest said that the main reason terrorism works so well is because of how cost effective it is to carry out a campaign. For example, he said it costs the United States about $1 million to $3 million to produce a smart bomb, or precision guided munitions, while Al Qaeda can use a person in the same way for a lesser cost.

"It cost Osama Bin Laden $250,000 to carry out the September 11th attacks, and it cost the U.S. trillions," Genest said. "Suicide bombing is incredibly cost effective and it is why they can continue to fight."

Genest said that this is the main reason why the United States, or any other country for that matter, will never win a war on terror, and the only hope is to successfully manage it.

"You are never going to win a war on terror and any politician who tells you otherwise is lying to you," he said. "I know in Rhode Island a lying politician is unheard of," he joked, "but trust me, sometimes they do."

Genest defined terrorism as a violent act that requires four characteristics to truly be terrorism. First, it has to be premeditated and not an act of random violence. Second, the overall goal of the organization or person committing the act has to be for political change.

Third, it cannot be primarily aimed at military targets; civilians must be the intended targets. Genest said this is why the Oct. 10, 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen was not really an act of terrorism - instead it was an act of war because the Cole was a military target.

The final aspect of terrorism, Genest said, is that it seeks to capture the media spotlight in order to bring attention to and fear of the aggressor's cause.

"One of the problems of terrorism is the difficulty of defining what terrorism actually is," he said. "Everyone who's anyone in the government has a different definition of terrorism."

He said that the first terrorist attack in the modern sense we know today happened at the 1972 Olympics, in which Yassir Arafat, the former Palestinian leader, ordered the murder of 11 Israeli athletes. This was the first modern terrorist attack because it was broadcast to the entire world and gave infamy to the terrorists on a scale never before seen.

"Before the 1972 Olympics, nobody but those in the Palestinian region knew who Yassir Arafat and the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organization] was," Genest said.

"After 1972 though, his name recognition skyrocketed, as did the PLO. Why? Because it was the beginning of the global media age. What better way to introduce yourself to the world than to terrorize and kill the Israeli athletes?"

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