Barry Farber
Friday, Nov. 23, 2001

Don't misunderstand. I'm not claiming to be one of the bravest Americans. I'm merely claiming to be among the most fearless.

The brave acknowledge danger and face it. The fearless simply don't believe there's that much danger.

They sell various signs at roadside fruit stands in Florida suitable for framing in lower-middle-class kitchens and game rooms. One of those more popular signs says "If you can keep your head while others are losing theirs, maybe you don't understand the problem!"

There is that possibility, but I think I understand something beyond the problem of terrorism aimed at America – anthrax, smallpox, lethal chemicals, or even nuclear explosives. My understanding gives me much comfort, even optimism.

I'm talking about what I'll call the "Lost-Cause Syndrome."

As this is written, the Taliban stronghold of Konduz in northern Afghanistan is being surrendered. The terrorists have lost.

Yes, I'm aware that al-Qaeda has trained terrorists in secret cells in 60 countries, all primed and programmed to launch more murderous mayhem, either when Osama bin Laden gives the word or by prearrangement in case he's not in a position to give any more words.

But nonetheless, THE TERRORISTS HAVE LOST. Consider what the terrorists wanted and expected at this point.

First of all, President Bush was supposed to have gone mad and sent cruise missiles flying instantly, willy-nilly into the supposed lairs of the usual suspects.

That indiscriminate response was to have set off a riptide of Moslem anger which would, according to terrorist dreams, topple every non-fundamentalist Islamic regime from Algeria to Indonesia and launch a billion Moslems into the streets screaming for Jihad.

Moreover, Americans were supposed to walk around dazed and disheartened for a much longer period than we did.

America's allies were expected to conclude it was time to get their bets off the red-white-and-blue paper tiger and make their separate accommodations with the new superpower, Terrorism.

And the terrorists probably expected instant obliteration for any Moslem who in word or deed dared come to America's defense.

How totally they miscalculated. How totally they failed. The Taliban is now surrendering to Moslems. The sons and grandsons of the Turks – Moslems, mind you – who fought so fiercely on our side in Korea have announced their willingness to do it again in Afghanistan.

America is irked that Saudi Arabia and Egypt are giving us little more than lip service. The terrorists are devastated that Saudi and Egyptian lip service is going to us, not them. If al-Qaeda were a football team, the coach would have sneaked out of the stadium at halftime and left a resignation note near the Gatorade.

The terrorists thought America's obviously non-serious response to the embassy bombings in East Africa and the attack on the USS Cole, plus all the earlier attacks, signaled the weakness of the new America. Little did they suspect it was merely the weakness of the previous administration.

President Bush and his team foiled them big time by deliberating, discriminating and delaying any response at all until targets, allies, ways, means and mood were ready.

So, why don't I fear the formidable 60-plus countries crawling with bin Laden's suicide-willing minions?

Let's look at the Lost Cause Syndrome. Remember when communism was collapsing in the Soviet Union? There was great fear that communist generals would set nuclear missiles flying to take their adversaries down with them.

To the contrary: Soviet authorities effectively guarded against such a doomsday.

As Nazi Germany was fighting a futile delaying action against the oncoming Americans in the spring of 1945, the following scene was played out repeatedly on the Western front. A blazing-eyed SS trooper would marshal the townspeople and demand that every male from the age of 15 through 80 pick up a gun and fight to the end.

And when the American artillery became audible, another German officer, particularly one who had distinguished himself in battle elsewhere, confronted the "fundamentalist" Nazi and said, "Look, pal. It's over. We've had enough of this. It can have no good result."

And the village would be peaceably surrendered.

Examples abound. Since more Americans have played Monopoly than have fought in battles, try to recapture the feeling when the other players held all the orange properties, all the red properties, all the green properties, plus Boardwalk and Park Place; all with hotels; and all you had was one railroad and a light bulb.

Don't you remember suggesting it might be a good time to fold the board and go out and get some air?

When the fundamentalist followers of Osama look at the hash he's made of their cause, a wet blanket of some considerable degree of thickness and dampness has got to descend upon them and unplug their motivation.

It was "fun" when American buildings were toppling and Americans were running and screaming. That fun tends to disappear when you have to start shooting your own Taliban allies because they're determined to surrender to the American allies on the other side of the hill.

Study the politician whose TV ads that were supposed to rally the voters to his side instead backfire and make him the target of every group from the Anti-Defamation League to Planned Parenthood to the Greens and the animal-rights lobby clear on over to senior elected officials in his own party.

That candidate's doorbell ringers begin to suffer paralysis of the pushing finger. The saliva of his envelope lickers runs dry.

How must those bin Ladenites feel seeing MOSLEM countries hunting down their buddies – along with Spain, Italy, Greece, Brazil, and an awful lot of elsewheres?

How must they feel to see every good country in the world plus some bad ones joining America's cause?

We've heard much about bin Laden's "deep-sleeper" terrorists who spend years living as ordinary middle-class Americans pursuing normal lives, until they get "the word."

How many of them will now just decide to keep on being normal middle-class Americans, word or no word? I suspect many, particularly when Afghanistan is purged of their comrades and American talk shows begin to debate "Who's next?"

The "fun" begins for our side as the enemy begin to turn on each other, when they begin darkly to wonder,"Who's still with us, who's wavering, and who's trying to get in on the $25 million reward?"

Then follows the Konduz Syndrome, in which those definitely still with the cause attack those who might not be.

The crown jewel of the Lost-Cause Syndrome has got to be the surrender of Japan in August 1945.

The common wisdom holds that after two atomic bombs destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese realized they faced certain destruction if they continued the war, so they gave up.

Wrong, according to a South African poet named Lawrence Vanderpost. Vanderpost spoke fluent Japanese and spent the entire war in a Japanese prison camp in the Dutch East Indies, not Indonesia.

In a mind-opening book published in the late 1960s, "The Prisoner and the Bomb," Vanderpost explained that the Japanese religion itself demanded they fight for the emperor to the very end with no thought ever of surrender. (Sound familiar?) That was their pledge, and that was their practice.

The Hiroshima bomb didn't make a dent in that suicidal resolve, according to Vanderpost. It did, however, introduce a new and spectacular change even in the fanatical – call it "fundamentalist" – Japanese mindset.

The single bomb capable of vaporizing an entire city was interpreted by the Japanese as a "Flash from Heaven" that RELEASED them from that pledge to fight to the death and ENABLED THEM TO SURRENDER WITH HONOR!

In other words, Vanderpost explains, in a literal way their Japanese "God" was telling them, "I appreciate your courage and steadfastness up to now. However, this American bomb is my way of letting you know that my demands on you have changed. I now permit you to surrender immediately without further harm to anyone."

By the time the message had percolated through the webwork of Japanese military theologians, the Nagasaki bomb had been dropped, which did nothing to subtract from the new interpretation.

My prayer and my bet are that enough of the al-Qaeda terrorists will interpret the abrupt, unexpected collapse of the Taliban – plus the failure of the Moslem world to embrace them – as a "Flash from Allah" permitting them to abandon their plans for Jihad and go play some more computer games down at the mall.

So long as a normalcy continues that would prompt you – or permit you – to idle away a few moments logging on and reading this, my prayer and my bet are ahead.

Barry Farber's daily radio program is heard on more than 65 stations across America on the Talk Radio Network.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Al-Qaeda

War on Terrorism