Terrorism or Counter-terrorism

“I always wanted to be a soldier for my country”. Suicide Bomber said to himself. But I am a soldier, or am I? He was sitting on the last seat of “Bus 66”; there were a lot of people in the bus today, just like any other day. “I wanted to give my life for my country on the battle field. This is also a battle, if I die now, I can make a mark in our struggle for freedom. But this is suicide, I can’t do this! This is a war, and in war you can give your life for your country or political ideology. Yes, I should complete my mission.

This could have been the last thoughts that might have gone through a suicide bombers mind during the numerous suicide bombings that took place during the last few decades. Suicide bombing have been the most notorious act of modern day terrorism. Japanese Kamikaze pilots were suicide bombers in the Second World War as they crashed their planes into American ships. French rule in Algeria came to an end in 1962 after the French could no longer take the heat of suicide bombings. The world revisited suicide bombings in Sri Lanka courtesy of Tamil Tigers, and then it started becoming an international terrorist tool, and it reached apogee on September 11th 2001.

When a suicide bomber decided to end his life and take with him others to the unknown world he is labeled as a bloodless terrorist. A person who is willing to kill himself for his/her political cause is not a mad man. He is been well programmed to accomplish his mission. Root cause of terrorism is always political injustice, racism, cast, creed, religion, nationalism, communism, acts as catalysts. As noted by Professor Robert Pape of University of Chicago, “Beneath the religious rhetoric with which [such terror] is perpetrated, it occurs largely in the service of secular aims. Suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation rather than a product of Islamic fundamentalism. Though it speaks of Americans as infidels, Al-Qaeda is less concerned with converting us to Islam than removing us from Arab and Muslim lands”.

There are always two sides to every equation, the universal law of nature, which Newton highlighted so eloquently as the Third Law of Motion. “To every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction”. Good balancing itself against evil, positive against negative, north, south, etc. Hence terrorism has to be balanced too with Counter-terrorism, the “good terrorism”. War is a political tool, when corporate elites, through politicians are unable to attain their ulterior motives they resort to nefarious acts such as War (Without Any Real Reason). In order to fight this war very well programmed professional armed forces are ready. People who volunteer to join armed forces are mostly those who are from less affluent spectrum of the society. They too want a bit at the cake of “Riches”. When a soldier joins the armed forces he willfully signs a declaration stating that he is willing to lie down his life for his country. When he does, he is awarded a medal, remembered as a national hero. A pilot flying an F-16 or B-52 drops a bomb on a village where suspected enemy combatants are hidden, later he finds out that most killed were innocent civilians (collateral damage). Is there a difference between a suicide bomber and a soldier who kills innocent civilians? Yes, suicide bomber happens to be on the wrong side of the equation. The right side of the equation is that where wars are fought against other countries in the name of McCarthyism, Anti-Socialism, Anti-Communism, Democracy and, War against Terror (“Wanton killings of innocent civilians is terrorism, not war against terrorism”, Noam Chomsky). Such are the hypocritical norms that govern our world.

The fact of the matter is that there is no standard definition of terrorism. Terrorism expert Walter Laqueur has counted over 100 definitions of terrorism. Most common statement made on terrorism is “one man’s terrorism is another mans freedom fight”. This was echoed again by Nelson Mandela in an interview with Larry King in May 2000. “I was called a terrorist yesterday, but when I came out of jail, many people embraced me, including my enemies, and that is what I normally tell other people who say those who are struggling for liberation in their country are terrorists. I tell them that I was also a terrorist yesterday, but, today, I am admired by the very people who said I was one”. Unlike the rhetoric that emanated from the government and other popular circles of United States, specially Fox News channel, the reality is that Al-Qaeda, or terrorist who are from the Islamic World do not hate America because of freedom, democracy, or the American way of life. People in the Islamic world are against the foreign policy of America, more specifically its global hegemonic agenda. Harsh reality is that terrorism is a business, without it there would be no counter terrorism, no well maintained armies, and without them there would not be any need to buy expensive weapons, not much money circulation either. Covert agencies worth billions of dollars would become paper weights on this earth. This is the vicious circle that has made this world more dreadful with each passing year. Naomi Klein, Canadian author and journalist expressed similar views recently, “Terrorism doesn't just blow up buildings; it blasts every other issue off the political map. The spectre of terrorism - real and exaggerated - has become a shield of impunity, protecting governments around the world from scrutiny for their human rights abuses.” Howard Zinn had this to say on terrorism, “Terrorism has replaced Communism as the rationale for the militarization of the country (America), for military adventures abroad, and for the suppression of civil liberties at home. It serves the same purpose, serving to create hysteria”.

The word terrorism is just too complex to define clearly. The only thing that can be generally agreed upon is that terrorism involves violence and threat of violence, and that killing of innocent people can not be justified in any way. Jason Burke, an expert in radical Islamic activity, has this to say on the word “terrorism” in his book Al-Qaeda, ch.2, p.22, “There are multiple ways of defining terrorism, and all are subjective. Most define terrorism as 'the use or threat of serious violence' to advance some kind of 'cause'. Some state clearly the kinds of group ('sub-national', 'non-state') or cause (political, ideological, and religious) to which they refer. Others merely rely on the instinct of most people when confronted with innocent civilians being killed or maimed by men armed with explosives, firearms or other weapons. None is satisfactory, and grave problems with the use of the term persist. Terrorism is after all, a tactic. The term 'war on terrorism' is thus effectively nonsensical. As there is no space here to explore this involved and difficult debate, my preference is, on the whole, for the less loaded term 'militancy'. This is not an attempt to condone such actions, merely to analyze them in a clearer way.”

Terrorism can never be defined clearly, whenever a revolution, a freedom movement was fought in the name of freedom, liberation, right of self determination, it was associated with terrorism by those opposing it. Most of the time those opposing such indigenous movements were colonial powers Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Others and recently America, and in Middle East Israel.


Talha Mujaddidi

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