Maurice Stoker Interviews a Spy

From the vantage of Europe a different perspective on the terrorist threat emerges. Decidedly different. The vista grows more revealing the farther one removes oneself from the friendly centers of gravity of the "war," to put it in the jargon of the modern military. This being a so-called nonlinear conflict, it behooves the reviewer of this conflict to stand midway between the centers of gravity of the opposing sides.

Attempt to do so; what you find is that you cannot find the enemy’s centers of gravity. Oh, there was a cleanup in Afghanistan, which is now more or less on its own. And then there is the slight-of-hand in Iraq, a place that never was a center of gravity though was certainly sold as such. In fact, Iraq was seen more as a way station in a move to find a leverage point for all the enemy (read Middle Eastern Islamic) centers of gravity. Whether this was a terrible misreading is yet to be decided; only time will tell. It is certainly is a test of certain theories of warfare, as the interviewee will reveal.

And in the US, where does one find the centers of gravity? Was the World Trade Center a center of gravity? Not really. It had no military significance in any meaningful sense. Yet it was indeed a center of gravity, in another sense. As was the Pentagon, even though some who understand the history of warfare would claim that destroying the Pentagon would actually help the US win wars. Bureaucrats running wars is a bad idea, and the Pentagon is nothing if not a hive for bumbling bureaucrats.

All this by way of introduction to our interview. The subject is the war on terrorism, as seen by a US spy, a field operative here in Europe. The interviewee perforce must remain in the limbo of anonymity; we call him K.

Maurice Stoker

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