Cruel equations
It’s a Tom Clancy world out there anyway, so why not institute Team Rainbow for real and let them deal with hostage situations in a professional manner?
First, the infamous Moscow theatre siege, whose resolution produced more dead hostages than terrorists; then the failed Leganes takedown at the aftermath of the train bombings in Madrid, which got most of the CT team killed or injured; and then the unbelievable Oasis fiasco in Saudi Arabia, which saw terrorists escaping from a walled compound surrounded by police, after killing 22 people demonstrated that unilateral police action against hostage-taking or entrenched terrorists is ineffective, and usually results in tragedy. Now, although some hope for a peaceful resolution exists, the Beslan school crisis is shaping up to become the latest hecatomb.
Situations like these should be defused diplomatically, or better yet, prevented altogether by practicing prudent politics while there’s time (an unlikely proposition, since it seems there’s currently a scrum of politicians around the world willing to sow gale force winds). However, once hostage or entrenchment situations develop, the only way to deal with them efficiently (that is, with minimal loss of life and property) is by deploying a well-trained, well-equipped multidisciplinary (and probably multinational) HRT/CT tactical, with a restricted mandate for global operations endorsed by the U.N. Security Council. This force should probably be instituted by the U.N. itself, and fall under the auspice of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, in order to allay the misgivings that are sure to arise from signatories.
Due to the universal need for rapid and covert deployment in such situations, it will probably be nessecary to make provisions for minimal activation procedures, while also safeguarding the sovereignty of receiving countries by outlining strict and narrow operational parameters.
All in all, the paranoid mindset cultivated in recent years by the Bush Administration for internal consumption and enforcing external policies has done enough harm by itself to international relations and to global stability and culture, as the Olympics have proven. But when clear-cut local situations develop where innocent lives are in immediate danger, blameletting and political expediency must be set aside and in most cases, prompt and decisive action is required. (A caveat: the definition above is often perverted by hawks to provide justification for large scale bombardments or invasions against sovereign nations; it only really applies to hostage situations.)
It’s a cruel equation, but if enough terrorist takedowns prove succesful worldwide, hostage-taking will be seen to amount to a costly and ineffective way of waging warfare. Other terrorist means might be more frightening, but hostage taking is radically unjust, ethically debilitating to the whole populace and should never be allowed to become a fashion.
Of course, instituting such an agency, rendering it’s use acceptable to national governments and preventing it from overstepping it’s mandate will be a whole new ball game altogether.
It’s odd, how global politics shares similar concerns with biology, these days…
