I don’t have a lot to add to the discussion. Athena should be your main go-to gal on this story. She’s got a fabulous round-up of commentary from Jordanian bloggers. I’ll add Black Iris to the list. Just keep scrolling.
James Joyner of Outside the Beltway has a good sampling of media coverage and commentary from the American blogosphere.
Many have noted the anti-terrorist rally going on in Jordan right now:
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) – Hundreds of angry Jordanians rallied Thursday outside one of three U.S.-based hotels attacked by suicide bombers, shouting, “Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!” after the terrorist’s group claimed responsibility for the blasts that killed at least 56 people.
In an Internet statement, al-Qaida in Iraq linked the blasts at the Grand Hyatt, the Radisson SAS and the Days Inn hotels to the war in Iraq and called Amman the “backyard garden” for U.S. operations.
Police continued a broad security lockdown and authorities sent DNA samples for testing to identify the attackers. Land borders were reopened after being closed for nearly 12 hours.
The Amman protest was organized by Jordan’s 14 professional and trade unions – made up of both hard-line Islamic groups and leftist political organizations – traditionally a vocal critic of King Abdullah II’s moderate and pro-Western policies.
Protesters – including women and children – gathered outside a bombed hotels, shouting, “Death to al-Zarqawi, the villain and the traitor!” Drivers honked the horns of vehicles decorated with Jordanian flags and posters of the king. A helicopter hovered overhead.
“We sacrifice our lives for you, Amman!” the protesters chanted.
I don’t happen to be particularly impressed by rallies. Rallies are good for influencing politicians and bureaucrats. That’s what happened in Ukraine and Georgia and the other places where “velvet revolutions” have succeeded. They succeeded because their governments were dominated by politicians and bureaucrats.
You won’t influence revolutionaries or real autocrats that way. They’ll put the rallies and protests down in the most ruthless possible way—they don’t care what people think. Zarqawi and “Al-Qaeda in Iraq” won’t be impressed or influenced by rallies and protests, either. If there’s one thing they’ve demonstrated it’s that they have a political tin ear.
I think that this will be quite a test for King Abdullah and his government. I seem to recall that his father, Hussein, succeeded in eliminating a terrorist organization within Jordan some time ago but that he did it by rooting it out root and branch using means that Americans couldn’t or wouldn’t utilize or even tolerate. Can someone refresh my memory?
At any rate I’ll be interested in seeing how the Jordanian government responds.
UPDATE: Check out this reminiscence of Jordan and commentary on the terrorist attack (submitted in comments).
In case you were serious about refreshing memory, here’s a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September_in_Jordan
Yes, TM Lutas, I was serious and, yes, those were the events to which I referred. But the particular aspect that I seem to remember is that Hussein rounded up the family, friends, acquaintances, and anybody who might have even heard of somebody involved in the plot and began to torture and execute them.
Having been there, in Jordan, having met the people and heard thier disdain for terrorists – and knowing a bit about how the Government works, I can tell you that His Majesty isn’t going to put up with this stuff, and is not going to be hindered by political correctness either.
http://www.blogs4god.com/pundits/amman_jordan_bombed
Dave: Hussein actually was fairly restrained, a lot of people were pardoned, and later integrated. It was Hassan II of Morocco who after the second coup in 1975 put literally entire families into prison, never to be heard of again. Hussein was a weakling compared to Hassan’s bloody mindedness – but then in Jordan the tribal ties and the like still worked (and work). Hassan had a more modern society, in that sense, on his hands.
Athena is a twit I may add, bloody little student spends a year and thinks she knows something, but this aside, the demonstrations are useful not on the level of influencing az-Zarqaouie but wider opinion. In Morocco after the 2003 bombings, the massive and largely spontaneous demonstrations really turned public opinion against the salafi takfiri crowd and even today are referred to with some pride. A sense of mobilisation and a shared sense of outrage can be quite useful in turning opinion, which in Jordan has been rather too “understanding” of terror. I would expect that will change dramatically.
Thanks, Lounsbury.
If the English language Jordanian blogs are any gauge, it already is changing.
And I suppose you’re right about rallies, Lounsbury. They’re useful for creating shared experience and a feeling of solidarity and shared commitment. I’ve never been much of a joiner.
Jordan and Morocco may have responded fairly harshly to Islamists in the past, but I don’t think they matched Hafez Assad in Syria. Recall back in 1982 he totally flattened the city of Hama with artillery, then plowed and bulldozed the rubble into parking lots. Sort of a modern-day version of what was done to Carthage. I’m not sure Jordan’s government would be able to respond this way today – in fact I’m not sure any government other than Iran could.
The past events referred to above have nothing to do with “Islamists” – Black September was Palestinian secularist, the Moroccan events were secularist republic leaning Army officers trying to take out a king (equally secular in reality).
Not everything in the Middle East is “Islamist.”
As for the Syrian response, that level of brutality is only useful in a regime with no real own roots. Even if the Jordanians could do so (that is the royal regime) it would be utter nonsense to respond in such a fashion. A sign of weakness and desperation.