Who is winning this ongoing war on terrorism?
I think this is a legitimate question to be asked three years into the mayhem. If you are looking for an emotional answer or an entrenched point of view, you are reading the wrong writer.
Those with little or nothing to lose are clear winners by the bare minimum of their standards.
It is those anarchists blowing themselves and others up who are the only winners in this mayhem.
They are not nihilists in the strict definition of the term since they are “after” something and pure nihilists destroy for the sake of pure nothingness. By this standard, they are even more dangerous than the ideology of nihilism.
The civilized world, ours and in the greater outside, is losing this battle. The anarchists wanted to disrupt our lives and they have done that.
They want to pull the rug from under our feet socially, economically, and politically; they are close to succeeding. We are fighting to live another day, they are dying to deny us that.
What went wrong in this ongoing war, and why is the world not a better place yet? On our part, we, willingly or otherwise, refused to see the problem for what it was until bodies started piling up.
Now that we have to react, we find that years of nepotism and mediocrity is no match for men willing to blow themselves up.
The Americans went for the global reach. There have not been any attacks in the US itself, but alarms and disruptions have become a part of daily life.
In today’s world, one need not attack the country to succeed. Attacking American interests is tantamount to attacking the country itself.
Apart from the “liberation” of Iraq, the country has become a hotbed for all sorts of terror attacks fueled by the lack of authority and eased by the fluid situation in that unfortunate country.
The Americans would not listen to anyone who, while opposing their policy, is nonetheless giving genuine advice.
Chalabi is a good example of obstinacy grown into a tumor that had to be surgically removed.
What do we have now? A Vichy government that will collapse the day it becomes sovereign.
The daily lives of individuals the world over have been altered. A train passenger, a motorist, a bystander, anyone who is simply alive and moving from a point to another is now at risk.
Tightening the grip on humanity is not a cure for terrorism, yet security is paramount.
The trick for politicians is to balance the two requirements.
I don’t know how this is to be done. If I did, I’d run for office. But those in office should know and should change their tactics to show us results. They owe us that at least.
