Writing for Commentary, Abe Greenwald notes the rising anarchist hordes in Europe,
These real-world and cyberspace groups have more in common than names seemingly lifted from comic books. They are anarchists, and the headline-grabbing attacks at the end of last year are only part of a larger recent anarchist trend. According to the European police office, Europol, “Spain, Greece, and Italy reported a total of 40 attacks by left-wing and anarchist groups for 2009. This constitutes an increase of 43 percent compared to 2008; the number of attacks more than doubled since 2007.” The numbers didn’t include cyberattacks, and new numbers from 2010 aren’t in yet—but they are certain to show another spike.
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Paradoxically, the nihilism that this sense of destiny inspires guarantees that the anarchists, like the jihadists, will be with us only temporarily. For all their sentimentality about man in his natural state, they fail to see that it is in the true nature of humankind to look upon their program of ennobled annihilation, and recoil.
Anarchists themselves have never been able to come to much of an agreement on whether or not it is ever right to use violence to achieve political ends, with anarchists ranging from bomb throwers to pacifists on the question. One thing never changes, however — the critics of anarchist violence typically have no problem at all with organized state violence.
Greenwald’s disdain for violence doesn’t extended much beyond anarchists. When it comes to state organized torture, Greenwald has no problem with ennobling annhiliation,
What’s torture? There’s no sense in ignoring the slippery borders between tough interrogations and practices that should not carry the imprimatur of the United States of America. But if weighing the legal, moral, and historical implications makes torture harder, not easier, to identify, there is, I believe, a clear way through the morass. How’s this? Anything to which Christopher Hitchens is willing to submit himself in pursuit of a Vanity Fair article is not torture. This covers, among other things, back-waxing, exercise class, and waterboarding.
An unapologetic waterboarding policy would mean the U.S. could dispense with its wink-and-nod renditions, its interminable legal parsing, and its ever-conflicted public attitude. Waterboarding is quick, bloodless, painless, and uniquely effective; if explicitly overseen by competent appointees, it would doubtless become more of each.
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So, you see, anything that works is now torture. That is, of course, where all the unserious criticism was always leading. The “sad and dark” nature of the Bush chapter in American history is constituted by the very fact that the U.S. sought to fight back in earnest against a committed and deadly enemy. For it is in our success that we are to find our deepest shame.
Note to violent European anarchists: ditch the cyberattacks and letter bombs and switch to “bloodless, painless” waterboarding.