By William Tucker
Two unrelated, yet interesting, events occurred today in the world of terrorism. The first was the killing of a counterintelligence officer of Russia’s FSB in Dagestan. The second event was an attempted car bombing of a police station in Northern Ireland. As stated, these are unrelated events with regards to perpetrators and targets, but they are interesting because they demonstrate that two well established first world nations have been unable to end a dangerous insurgency taking place within their respective borders. The United Kingdom has been fighting Irish groups, in one form or another, for over 800 years. Russia on the other hand has been dealing with the expansion of Islamic separatists in the Caucasus region since perhaps the Arab invasion of Persia. The actors today are not direct remnants of the original struggle, but they do show how long these issues can exist. These issues provide the U.S. with a yard stick of how long domestic and international insurgencies can last. This is especially important as the U.S. is still a comparatively young nation with far flung interests. Although the U.S. is still young its longest running conflict is still very much alive today. In 1801, Tripoli declared war on the U.S. and Washington’s interest in the Middle East has not waned, nor is it likely to. In the meantime interests will clash and insurgencies, even in powerful nations, will persist.
Comments are closed.