Word: laqueur
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Historian Walter Laqueur warns against rigid analogies. If anything, says Laqueur, "you should compare Iran not with France, not with Russia, but with the revolutionary movements in Spain beginning in 1808 against Napoleon, where the revolt was carried out by the crowd, by the mass of people." Princeton University Political Scientist Robert C. Tucker suggests some similarity to the Russian uprising of 1905. Thousands of unarmed striking workers marched on the Czar's Winter Palace at St. Petersburg. Government soldiers fired on the crowd, killing and wounding hundreds. More strikes broke out. Peasant and military groups revolted. Says Tucker...
...some times fascists, as in Germany and Italy) intent on rescuing old native virtues from alien influences, or of Communists, or of nationalists (in Ireland, for example). Elements of all three have been at work in Iran. But now the contradictions of the types must be sorted out. Says Laqueur: "The Iranian revolution does not exist. There exist various groups, each of which says, 'We caused the revolution, we are the legitimate heirs.' " The resolution may take months or years. After a period of chaos, it becomes easy to imagine, a variation of the Brinton model might start...
...protest," free societies that choose to remain free will be subject to the risks and fears of violence. Indeed, the potential for evil will soar if terrorists get their hands on new biological, chemical and radiological?to say nothing of nuclear?arms with which to frighten the innocent. Warns Laqueur: "In ten or fifteen years, terrorists will have the weapons of superviolence; then perhaps even a single person will be able to blackmail an entire town, district or country." To combat tomorrow's terrorist, new and creative measures, as well as an unprecedented degree of international cooperation, will be required...
...financial support of American Jews and the backing of the U.S. Government. Likewise, if there ever is a Palestinian state in the Middle East, it will owe its existence to the fabulous wealth and political leverage of OPEC Arabs, not to the murderous acts of Al-Fatah. As Laqueur, Parry and Psychiatrist Frederick J. Hacker demonstrate in their books, guerrilla tactics (as differentiated from partisan action or government terror) have usually been an attention-getting device: if war is diplomacy by other means, then terrorism is a gruesome arm of public relations...
...Laqueur, a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., compares modern terrorism with bygone atrocities. He coolly concludes that urban guerrilla movements, such as the extinct Tupamaros of Uruguay, may have seen their day. The reason, as Laqueur dryly notes, is that the decline of liberal democracy in many parts of the world makes it harder to be a terrorist. The Tupamaros, for example, began not under the heel of a dictator but in one of Latin America's most democratic nations. The membership, much of it privileged youth, successfully undermined the authority...