The Political History of the Car Bomb

In what is certain to be a revelation for many supporters of the state of Israel, Davis explains the car bomb's modern origins in the tactics of the Zionist terrorists known as the Stern Gang.

It may be news for israel-firsters. But, it sure as hell comes as no surprise for the rest of us - standard operating procedure for israelis - explosives and false flags are, literally, israel's raison d'etre.

This group, composed of men - some who went on to help rule Israel -- was ruthless in its application of car bombs.

They genuinely did not seem to care who died in the explosions they caused, although they preferred them to be Arab.

It was the success of their terror campaign that helped "cleanse" Palestine of Palestinians so that Israelis could take the lands.

The Stern Gang's success would also prove to cause what we nowadays call blowback. Indeed, car bombs set off in civilian spaces have been a favorite tactic of the Palestinian resistance to Israel ever since its founding.

The only problem is - there's no way to be sure that israelis aren't pulling it off themselves as pretexts for more land grabs and incursions.

The anonymous nature of the car bomb is what makes it appealing to those guerrilla groups that use them. It is also why they have an appeal to intelligence agencies whose goal is to discredit legitimate insurgent groups. From Saigon, where CIA agents assisted a Vietnamese warlord in his car bomb campaign against Saigon and Hanoi and after his death continued on their own, to Baghdad, where rumors fly daily about which governments are really behind the assorted bombings of that day, the car bomb has been used to manipulate the public and kill the rulers' enemies. Nowhere did this secret government affinity for car bombing have a greater effect than in the campaign of terror unleashed by then CIA director William Casey in Afghanistan.

With the general approval of the Reagan administration, Mr. Casey's minions trained, armed and ran interference for the holy warriors of the Afghani mujahedin, providing car bomb technical assistance and materials. Of course, it is the descendants of that same group that Casey's company trained that would eventually hatch the various plots against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon--car bombs with wings, as it were [yeah, right]. More importantly, those acts have inspired many more such plots and acts, with no real end in sight.

Davis's history is not a politically charged indictment of any particular faction, although he pointedly places blame for the current upsurge in the use of car bombs by Islamists on Mr. Casey and his crusade.

Because it would be career suicide to blame the Stern Gang or Mossad.

It is, however, a serious look at a military tactic Davis finds (along with most of his reader, one assumes) morally repugnant.

There is no single faction to blame here, unless one blames the inventor of the internal combustion engine and those who manufacture cars, since groups of multiple political hues have all used the car bomb at various times.

In fact, even criminal organizations have found this weapon useful when they want to kill opponents or whomever happens to be shopping on a particular day.

Davis acknowledges the possible reasons behind the car bomb's use by political groups but constantly reminds the reader of the moral complications that use brings to the group and its cause.

While reading the book, I could not help but be reminded of the current Washington-led "war on terrorism" and the ridiculous assertion behind that war's supporters that one can fight a war against a tactic.

The history detailed in Buda's Wagon makes it quite clear that any such battle is not only pointless, but wrongheaded.

The lesson learned from Davis' history is this: in order to fight the tactic of terror, one must become a terrorist themselves. That much is clear no matter whether one is fighting state terror or terror directed against the state.

What a rotten conclusion.

That might be what's happening (provided it's not the same nasty group of murderers that have their fingerprints on most of these car bombs), but it certainly doesn't have to be that way.

The best way to fight terrorism is through a just criminal prosecution system and an END to secret intelligence organizations so that EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is out in the open - NOTHING is hidden and they have NOWHERE to HIDE.

Only then can we begin to unravel who is behind these hellish tactics.

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Thanks, David