You may remember “Get Smart,” a 1960s sitcom in which Maxwell Smart, a bumbling CONTROL secret agent battled the agents of evil - known as KAOS - in a spoof on Cold War intrigue. In the show, the forces of evil are part of a grand conspiracy to undermine all that is good, and if that plotline sounds strangely familiar, consider the current verbiage about a “War on Terror.”

The ideology standing behind the “War on Terror” is full of cosmic and conspiratorial images. We are engaged, so we've been told, in a battle between good and evil, with our “enemies” seeking to do us harm because they hate our way of life and our freedoms. Soon after 9-11, President Bush “mistakenly” spoke of launching a crusade against those who had attacked us. Although he retracted this politically and religiously charged word, the idea of a crusade resonated with huge numbers of Americans, who did envision America as a Christian America battling a Muslim enemy.

Unfortunately, many in the Islamic world also heard this usage as confirmation of their worst fears that the “War on Terror” and the war in Iraq are part of a religiously inspired war against Islam. The demand that the world choose between them and us in this battle against evil has cosmic overtones, and when the choice was put to millions of Muslims around the world, what they heard was a choice between a “Judeo-Christian” West and Islam. It shouldn't surprise us, then, that many Muslims chose “them” and not us.

That evil was perpetrated on 9-11 is not to be denied. But, the use of cosmic imagery by our nation's leaders only adds fuel to the fire of a conflict that's much more nuanced and complex than our conspiratorial terms convey. In reality, American use of such language plays into the hands of those who wish to fight a cosmic war with us. And such a war, where casualties are irrelevant, can't be won, at least not militarily.

This conclusion was suggested by Reza Aslan to an interfaith gathering I attended. Aslan is a progressive Iranian-born Muslim, author, and UCSB doctoral candidate, who laments how America has mishandled the conflicts in the Middle East. He told us that statements and actions by America's leaders have played into the hands of fanatics who see themselves fighting a cosmic war between the forces of good and the Great Satan (That's Us!). He pointed to statements made by Gen. William Boykin, a former deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, that the “War on Terror” is a battle between a Christian nation founded on Judeo-Christian values and an enemy who is “a guy named Satan.” No one in the current administration disavowed these statements and Boykin kept his job (at least until recently), but such statements are poisonous to our efforts in the Middle East.

The problem with the “War on Terror” is that no one's sure what a terrorist is. Often one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter, which means that terrorism, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Mark Juergensmeyer, of UCSB, challenges the logic that “terrorism exists because terrorists exist, and if we just got rid of them, the world would be a more pleasant place” (“Terror in the Mind of God”). This definition envisions the world in conspiratorial terms that includes many disparate entities in a vast network of enemies. Therefore, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Chechen and Kashmiri rebels (none of whom have declared war on the United States) are equated with Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda (which has declared war on America).

There are no easy answers to these issues confronting us, but it would seem wise to distinguish the world's conflicts from each other and ask difficult questions about their causes and possible solutions. Although the war in Iraq has been linked to the “War on Terror,” by many estimates the Iraqi war has only further destabilized the Middle East and contributed to the problem of terrorism.

Although religion appears to play a significant role in these conflicts, I agree with Reza Aslan that we would do well as a nation to stop framing the conflicts in cosmic and religious terms. Instead, why not name these things as they are: In Israel and Palestine, it's about land, economic viability, water rights history, and security, not religion. In Iraq, it's about tribal loyalties, just allocation of resources (oil and water), and, yes, efforts to settle old scores. If we stop adding ideological fuel to this conflict, then maybe a peaceful resolution can be pursued.

Dr. Bob Cornwall is pastor of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Lompoc (www.lompocdisciples.org). He has a blog (http://pastorbobcornwall.blogspot.com) and may be contacted at lompocdisciples@impulse.net or at First Christian Church, P.O. Box 1056, Lompoc, CA, 93436.

March 4, 2007