'We operate on the idea that the biggest threats we face come from the outside'

From: Antibiotics, Counterinsurgency and the Myth of Contagion
by Sean Donahue

Back when the war in Afghanistan began, Donald Rumsfeld said that the U.S. strategy in fighting "terrorists" was to "drain the swamp they live in."
His malarial metaphor revealed deep connections between the way our culture perceives threats to our health and threats to our national security.

We operate on the idea that the biggest threats we face come from the outside -- bacteria, viruses, and parasites entering our bodies through cuts and bug bites and contaminated food; terrorists sneaking across our borders. And so we seek to eliminate those threats using the most potent weapons and strategies available, from broad spectrum antibiotics to the cruise missiles and laser guided bombs the military uses to secure "full spectrum dominance" on the battlefield.
But those approaches are backfiring. The indiscriminate use of antibiotics has spurred the evolution of newer, more virulent diseases. The medical establishment's primary response has been to develop new antibiotics that in turn spur the evolution of stronger bacteria. Large scale bombing, urban firefights, house to house searches, and the detention and torture of suspected insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to upsurges of violent resistance in both countries.

These failures require a reexamination of some of our fundamental assumptions about how the world works – and that re-examination has the potential to be a catalyst for some important cultural shifts...

 

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