It certainly seems that the more the USA and its allies fight the terrorists the greater their number and more widespread their attacks become. It is like trying to fight Golden Staph with simple penicillin.
In 2001 the world stood in the wake of 911 and vowed to bring justice to those who lost their lives. Soon we will witness the passing of four years, with two wars fought (and still underway) and two 'evil' regimes overthrown (despite being unconnected to the attack on the USA).
In the time since that fateful day the horror has continued with Bali, Madrid and London as well as numerous smaller attacks, all of which have left tens of thousands of people dead or mourning and millions more living in fear or with their rights under threat.
Jason Burke writes in The Guardian today to suggest that what we are seeing is the work of an idea sweeping the world, rather than a carefully crafted plot by some underworld organisation.
... we need to face up to the simple truth that Bin Laden, al-Zawahiri et al do not need to organise attacks directly. They merely need to wait for the message they have spread around the world to inspire others. Al-Qaida is now an idea, not an organisation.
He is right. And what is more, the governments and the media are the unwitting fuel for this pandemic. What we are seeing now is the start of a long list of copycat terrorist attacks from all manner of people, not just trained terrorists or crazed fundamentalists but real people with a real grudge.
The new war is beginning to be fought in our own streets, near our homes and places of work. It no longer requires a large network of terrorist cells financed by middle eastern billionaires or a magic word to awaken the sleepers that lie dormant in our suburbs.
Today's terrorists are people we went to school with, the guy we chat to in the lunch bar or on the bus. They are regular citizens who, for whatever reason, get hooked into the idea that is now being played out on their TV's, radios, newspapers, magazines and the internet.
Just as the green movement, and the anti-nuclear movement before it, swooped across the world in a wave of acceptance with powerful consequences, so too can the ideals of peace in the Middle-East or faith in Islam be turned to less positive consequences and have such disastrous effects upon the world.
Burke is right - and it goes far deeper than he cared to admit.
[+/-] show/hide this post
No comments:
Post a Comment