Jordanian pilot Muaz Kasasbeh was brutally killed by ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), who placed him in a cage and set him on fire. For us who have been witnessing all kinds of murder in Iraq and its environs since 2003, this represented one of the ugliest incidents of revenge and violence.
The Amman administration executed Sajida al-Rishawi and another ISIL member of Iraqi descent in retaliation. Of course we don’t question the punishment meted out to these people convicted of involvement in terrorism. But the same amount of consideration as that given to the organization’s barbaric murder needs to be paid to these executions that were in retaliation to ISIL’s murder.
Pay attention to the fact that of the parties involved in this reciprocal action, one is an organization and the other is a state! This is where it gets distorted… While we understand Jordan’s pain and rage; when states start being motivated by revenge rather than abiding by the law, a new danger starts to emerge in our region.
ARE WE AWARE OF THE IMPENDING DANGER!
This is the most frightening example of states increasingly resembling organizations and organizations increasingly resembling states, or to be more precise, the blurring of the lines that differentiate a state from an organization.
My estimate is that in the next decade we will see countries in our environs affected by this blurring of lines that differentiate between a state and organization, and the legitimizing of retaliatory violence by states as a means of response, just like it is with organizations.
ISIL is a creation that not only has been transformed into an extraordinary force in Iraq and Syria but attempts are underway to increase its influence in Nigeria and Libya and create a front for it there. There are also attempts to spread it in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region and to transform it into a dominant force throughout the region.
It is being promoted as a way of thought rather than just a force. It is a structure that carries out beheadings and the most barbaric forms of violence in the area it dominates. This shows what we will have to confront in the future given that political movements similar to the Muslim Brotherhood are being liquidated and such a mindset is being publically entrenched instead.
Jordan is a state. It is a monarchy which is a garrison state that has everything dictated to it by the United Kingdom in particular, but it is a state nonetheless…
Both these examples don’t bode well actually. I am not sure how much of this we comprehend, and to what extent we are able to sense this impending danger. I am not sure how aware we are of the consequences of the blurring of lines between states and organizations, the growing reach of organizations in the region and their move toward statehood, and the abandonment of prudence by states and their adoption of behavior more suited to organizations.
But it would serve us well to realize this danger at the earliest. Jordan will become more aggressive as ISIL escalates its murderous acts; it could increase retaliatory actions resulting in deaths, or perhaps try other means of aggression. But all these actions would take Jordan further away from being a state and drag it toward becoming an organization and a front.
ISIL IN THE EAST, RACIST ORGANIZATIONS IN THE WEST
States in the region are being provoked by such violence and are committing errors as a result. They are removed from being a state of law and legitimacy and being dragged toward becoming an organization-based mess. State-building in Iraq post-occupation was not possible due to this. If armed conflict starts in post-coup Egypt, the state apparatus there too will be eroded. The same applies for Syria and Lebanon. Israel has not acted like a state but rather like an organization ever since its foundation.
It seems like some people are fueling this wave of violence to the maximum and preparing for something in the region. Preparations are underway to ensure long-lasting chaos by eroding states and tearing them apart by resorting to organizations.
It is interesting that this tide of violence is not just limited to our region but is also growing in the West. As a tide of violence rises in the East on the basis of ISIL, the footfalls of fascism can be heard in the West, resulting in the creation of new racist organizations daily. The neoconservative racists in the United States have also taken Europe hostage in recent times. There are parallels to be found between the growing racism in the West and the unregulated spread of organizations in the Middle East.
In both regions supporters of violence are coming to prominence, taking root, and forcing societies to choose on the basis of rage. I think the world in general is faced with such a dangerous trend, and it is becoming more pronounced daily.
FIGHTING ABSTRACT ENEMIES WEARYING FOR STATES…
There is a similarity between Jordan’s decision to execute people after being angered by ISIL and the United States’ succumbing to rage after Sept 11, 2001 and setting fire to a part of the world and murdering hundreds of thousands of people. The United States had no specific enemy opposing it at the time. There was an organization called Al-Qaeda, whose dimensions were not fully known and which was surrounded by ambiguity.
The U.S. administration was settling scores with an organization. Or to be more precise, it wasn’t fighting a tangible structure but against a mindset. Jordan is in the same situation today. It is confronted by an organization with many ambiguities surrounding it. Once again it is a mindset manifesting itself via an organization, and Jordan is forced to confront this mindset.
There is no specific interlocutor in this war started by the United States. Organizations used to be well-defined during the Cold War era. They were engaged in ethnic or ideological fights. But now there are structures rising up against the global system. Even if there are ethnic or ideological reasons, the organizations in question have a far wider public base and the actual structuring is in the mind.
WORLD FACED WITH A NEW FORCE
The world is faced with a new force. States are abandoning their traditional positions and for the first time are waging war against segments and organizations. What is strange is that this war is rapidly becoming globalized. A person born in Paris can turn up in Afghanistan; a person born in China turns up in Syria or Darfur and becomes part of the wars there. Or a Japanese citizen is executed in Syria or Iraq and its impact is felt all over the world. People who previously worked for intelligence agencies can now kill members of the intelligence agencies they used to work for.
Another aspect of this war is that it validates the thesis of wars between cities being on the horizon. One is moved to think of a disaster scenario where state apparatuses will be weakened and the masses will revert to city and regional identities rather than a national identity, and take over in cities.
It is not just structures like ISIL and Al-Qaeda attempting to become states in our region. Communities too have started trying to be states and are implementing projects for a community-state. Needless to say that the definition “parallel structure” was coined within this framework.
RECREATION OF A PERCEPTION OF STATE
It is during such a period that a new perception and understanding of what represents a state needs to be created. An understanding of a state in partnership with the masses can be an impediment to this tide instead of a state that is authoritarian, inward-looking, isolated from the masses and reliant on force.
I tried to draw attention to three issues: the globalization of violence via organizations, states transforming into organizations as they attempt to confront organizations, and the spread of violence in the Islamic world through structures like ISIL and in the West through racism…
It would do good to reflect on these issues.
