Gentleman's Game

[Lightning Rod]

I grew up in a golfing family. My grandfather and two of my uncles were pros and part of the masculine right of passage into adulthood in our family was to shoot under par. One of the early pieces of wisdom that my family imparted to me in the context of the gentleman's game of golf was: You drive for show, and putt for dough.

To some limited degree, the game of golf is one of strength. It helps if you can hit 350 yards off the tee. But more than a game of strength, it is a game of skill and accuracy. Knowing how to get out of a sand trap or read the break of a green is more important than being able to deploy Big Bertha. Golf is a game of technique over brute force, just like terrorism.

After the subway and bus bombings in London two weeks ago and the attempted reprise several days ago, you can be sure that mass transit will be the focus of our government's reaction to these events. Don't be surprised when they tell you to arrive at your subway station or bus stop two hours in advance of your departure so that you can have your retinas scanned and your asshole searched and your crotch sniffed by highly educated dogs.

Terrorism as we know it today probably originated in Russia in the late 1800's. There had been acts of terrorism before, political assassinations and massacres etc, but they were largely perpetuated by those in power. The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution was carried out by those in power.

Lenin and his contemporaries in Russia, turned terrorism into a different sort of weapon.Terrorism became a tool to be used when you were outgunned and outnumbered and was not most effective when used directly against the enemy, but when aimed at other symbolic and easily attacked targets. Terror is a strategy that can command the attention of the public, create political tension and provoke oppressive government reactions. If you have tried to get through an airport recently, you will know how successful the 9/11 terrorists were.

The London terrorists have enjoyed similar success. Because of them, people across the ocean in New York City are being randomly frisked and delayed in their travels because the authorities want to demonstrate that they are vigilant in their efforts to protect you from that from which there is no possible real protection.

Lenin wrote, “The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize,” A terrorist hopes that whatever local act of violence he can manage will have more widespread effects.

I'm not calling terrorism a gentleman's game, but it is one of skill and accuracy. Terrorism is the Zen or Tai Chi of warfare. Very little force achieves great results. All the ordinance needed to accomplish the horrific destruction of 9/11 and it's more horrific aftermath (the abridgment of our civil rights), was a handful of box cutters.

When BushCo and the Coalition of the Semi-Willing rolled their tanks into Iraq behind a barrage of Shock and Awe, they were driving for show. But the resistance, which we prefer to call the insurgency, is putting for dough. A two foot putt powered by ten pounds of homemade plastic explosive can win the tournament. We are discovering this as week after week there are twenty more young American soldiers reported dead.

The Poet's Eye is always on the ball and it sees that we are deep in a sand trap.