On national security

With the world heading fast towards military and ecological chaos, it is more critical than ever that national security be understood in the broadest terms, writes Amin Howeidi*

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The international scene is one of depressing chaos and runaway aggression. Foreign threats have multiplied, with terror streaming across borders, drugs trafficked by gangs that can be mightier than governments, and multi- nationals exerting pressure everywhere. Water is scarce, but not earthquakes and floods. The West has its own agendas, and so do ethnic groups. Trade agreements have so far paved the way to little aside from unequal competition. Debts are being used as means of political pressure. And the powers are deciding on behalf of all when and where weapons of mass destruction are really a bad thing.

The world has depleted nearly 60 per cent of its non-renewable resources. Two-thirds of the globe is now polluted. Biological diversity is diminishing. And humanity has used up more food and energy in the past few years than it did over the entire 18th and 19th centuries. The world, as it stands today, is an exercise in Malthusian doom. How long will this earth be able to sustain this kind of unrestrained growth? No one knows for certain. Most of the world's natural resources are used up by major industrial nations, the same ones that call upon armies to destroy towns and spread epidemics at random.

Is there anything we can do in the face of such threats? Is there anything our military can do in the face of poverty, illiteracy and disease? And how do we address such a wide spectrum of civilian and military perils? I don't claim to have the answers, but let me suggest some pointers.

First, terror, debts, ethnic and religious problems are all of global nature and call for global solutions. Second, the gap between the North and the South and the poor and rich only adds to the intensity of these problems. Third, so long as might is right and as international law is revamped to suit the preferences of the major powers, the worst is to be expected. Fourth, double standards that allow Israel, but not other countries, to have weapons of mass destruction and that call violence terror in a selective manner are of no help.

What we need is a constitution conforming to the aspirations of our country and citizens, and a charter delineating the manner of development we seek. Poverty and hunger are weapons of mass destruction, and must be defused before it is too late. We need to decide whether our policy is one of appeasing the North or having solidarity with the South, where our roots are.

We need strong armed forces, but we have to think twice before firing the first shot. Wars are harder to end than to start. We cannot allow our officials to stay in office forever. We need new blood. People in the streets, even the backstreets, have a stake in our affairs, and we have to listen to them. We cannot have political democracy without social justice, because we cannot give political power to those who already have economic power, for a simple reason: they may not be willing to share. National unity means that we must confine the clerics to their mosques and churches, and the servicemen to their barracks.

The devil is in the detail. We need to put the right person in the right place and stamp out corruption. We need good governance, for we cannot allow problems to keep festering forever. A state that is up to its neck in problems is one with a crippled will, one that fears rivals, one that hides behind thinly-veiled referendums, one that invites the public to scream: Enough is enough!

National security matters are too weighty for public rallies. We need workshops with specialists debating the fine points of policy in an earnest manner. Our people deserve solutions, not just rhetoric. If they lose hope, they may turn into human bombs.

I can go on to speak of Western national security, but we have enough to worry about. It is inconceivable for Arab countries, insecure as they are, to help with collective security. Our failure on the regional level is a function of our failure on the national level. Do we deserve better? Perhaps we do.

* The writer is former minister of defence and chief of general intelligence.