Does violence stop terrorism?
All we have to do is look at both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide to understand that violence, including terrorism by a state or occupied population, rarely stops further violence as long as the grievances motivating them are not addressed. In that context, 15 years ago Connor Cruise O’Brien warned that “the free, or capitalist, world provides highly favorable conditions for terrorist recruitment and activity.” Why? Because the number of frustrated were increasing along with their awareness of how good life was for the few and better off. Ten years later, Bill Clinton made the “war on terrorism” a lynchpin of his reelection campaign just as the neo-liberal paradigm of globalization he championed achieved unparalleled power in international policy-making. It should come as no surprise, then, that in pushing for Star Wars funds, the U.S. Space Command’s pamphlet “Vision for 2020” argues that “the globalization of the world economy” will widen the gap between haves and the have-no
