When, where, and how cosmopolitan terrorism becamenthe client of the Soviet Union is not easy to generalize.nActually, most of the terrorist movements consider thencommunist state an enemy, and with good reason. Nonetheless,nan alliance has been concluded. The cosmopolitannterrorist, whenever he acts against the U.S., Israel, WesternnEurope, prosperous Japan, or just peace and stability aroundnthe noncommunist world, he does it on behalf of Russia. Hengets his training in those “institutes of ideological warfare”nin Ulyanovsk or Minsk, where the KGB introduces him tonthe arts of assassination, sabotage, bombing, subversion,ninterrogating and torturing prisoners—all in keeping withnthe latest Soviet achievements and research in the subjugationnand elimination of people. That the Teheran “students”nare graduates of such an institution of Soviet higher learningnis obvious to anyone with an unprejudiced eye. Their skillsnat isolating the American hostages from one another, atnmeticulously planning propaganda lies about their condition,nat torturing them without brutality by “just” having themntied to a chair for days and nights, and forcing them to assurenthe world that they are “well treated,” while decomposingntheir will to resist and dividing them along racial or sexualndifferentiations—all these indicate the most refined Sovietntechniques. Is there still anyone in the world, besides thenAmerican liberal, who believes that captives extoU theirncaptors without coercion? The captors of 50 Americans arenpolitical thugs from an ignominious school of human abasementninvented by the communists in Russia. Why the Araer-nPhilosophy in American”O philosophy, thou guide of life, O thou explorer of virtuenand expeller of vice!”n-Cicero, 45 B.C.n”In LA, or New York, I’d be a pornographer; here I’mna philosopher.”nSo spake a certain Dr. Mike Sered. “Here” meansnChicago. What gives Dr. Sered the status of successor tonDescartes and Husserl in Chicago.’ He edits a sex magazinen{together with his wife) and organizes a yearly LifenStyles Expo. He has been working on defining “mindstylesn. . . alternative to the Judeo-Christiati way ofnfinding spirituality,” and, after a giant intellectual effort,nhe has found them in things like mate swapping,nsurrogate sex therapy, and institutions once called brothels,nbut which now are called “swingers’ clubs” by Dr.nSered’s devout disciples. The Chicago TribunegaveDr.nSered and his Expo fantastic publicity. Which makes usnsense that perhaps he’s right to consider himself a philosophernin Chicago. Dnican press gratifies them with the label “students” at a timenwhen semantics is promotion, is incomprehensible andnreprehensible.nThe American media seem to be unable to grasp that thencosmopolitan terrorist’s ultimate goal is the humiliation ofnAmerica. This seems rather insubstantial for a politicalnobjective, but it makes sense in an era of image as substance.nIt’s the only, the best, way to reassert the terrorist’s Weltanschauung:nour denigration is his rats on d’etre. Unlike anMarxist, he does not strive for economic retribution or classnvengeance; America does not exploit Iran, but enriches it.nHe doesn’t attempt to disarm America politically or militarilyn— as may intend his Russian ally, who has a realistic chancento do just that. His only victory, then, is possible throughndebasing, befouling, and trampling American glory—withnthe help of the American ethos and institutions, America’snreluctance to impose her will on others, American respectnfor law and humanness. This is why Prof. Schlesinger’snproposal to let the terrorists know that we understand theirnends and wishes was so silly: Mr. Schlesinger assumed thatnonce we had explained to them that we sympathized withntheir concerns, they would let the hostages go. I can imaginentheir belly laugh. As ever, the American liberal thinks andnbehaves like a “useful idiot”—as Stalin used to call him.nXslam, and Arabic societies, have become a fertile hotbednof cosmopolitan terrorism. This truth antedates the Iranianncrisis. The most ferocious and random political terrors innmodern times made their debut in Algeria in the 1950’s.nSince then, the Arab, particularly the PLO commando, hasnbecome a synonym for barbarism, atrocity, inhumanity. NownIran, a non-Arabic but Moslem nation, adds to this picturenan utter contempt for all norms, or rationales, evolved duringnthe millennia, for civil intercourse between peoples, nations,nsocieties, countries, states.nNot long ago, we wrote in The Rockford Papers that twonfactors would determine the relationship between the Westnand Islam: first, the smoldering passion for revenge againstnChristianity for all that happened after the battle of Lepanto,nwhich is now possible thanks to the oil weapon; second, thensusceptibility of the Moslem world to accommodation withnthe totalitarian dregs of the Judeo-Christian civilization,nlike nazism and communism. The Moslem syncretism isninexplicable: the Islamic fundamentalist, Qaddafi, isnMoscow’s most trusted henchman in the Mediterranean, andnthe wealthiest protector of cosmopolitan terrorism—threendisparate aspects of a virulent anti-Americanism and antifreedomnare perfectly converged in one personality. The PLOnoperates with Soviet expertise and equipment. MoslemnAfghanistan is being crushed by the Russians, who have alsonnnJanuary/February 1980n