We live in a world where people drive through seas of civilians with trucks, where people shoot up shopping malls, where people blow themselves up while killing multiple others surrounding them. After the attack in Nice just last week, and the possibility of terrorism in Munich this past Friday, not to mention the rising number of terror attacks that happen by the month these days, America – and the rest of the world -- are looking for a saving grace and end to the insanity that is taking its tour of the globe.
After Iraqi troops liberated the majority of the crucial city of Fallujah last month from ISIS’s grip, the loss of territory was aimed to cripple the Islamic State terror group. Yet, as forces chip away at the physical ground that ISIS and other terror groups have, these mass terrorist attacks are popping up all over the world at an increasing velocity.
Terrorism is a tricky thing. Since it’s an idea, an overall concept, an intangible evil, physically squelching it is virtually impossible. We can weaken its physical power by retaliation – guns, tanks, speeches, bombs, rallies, laws, war. But that only gets us so far – shooting a person won’t kill an idea, it will just lessen a number, unless they are the sole person to have this idea. That is not the case with terrorism, which is why even though we take territory and group leaders and information, the fire rages on.
This is not to say that the war against terrorism is wrong – it is brave, honorable and necessary for the physical safety of literally everyone in the world. With terrorism’s net being cast much wider over the globe these days, those who actively subdue and prevent its physical presence are doing the work of heroes.
Because it exists in thin air, in the brains and in hearts of children and men and women, in conversation and culture and rules and oppression. It’s not a target with an “I’m a terrorist” sign above it. It’s invisible unless acted upon, making it the most elusive of enemies. Hence the “terror.” Since terrorism is an idea, it is easy to maneuver it to gain power, to recruit, to elicit fear by playing on fear. Radicalism is easier to plant in someone’s brain if they are surrounded by extremes of all different spheres; like if their political figure-head is radically against about something that they support, they are (probably) more likely to be persuaded to be radically against that figurehead and their supporters.
That’s the other element of terrorism that I find the most horrible – the purpose of the killing and the deaths and all of the bloodshed, in my mind, transcends just the losses. Each one is a call to action, a recruitment advertisement, a massive spreading of an idea. A plague that a vaccine can’t prevent.
Just a person or a group, but rather a transmission in the airwaves that is heard by all. It can not only deepen its scope, but also help us, as individuals and as citizens, find a way to fight it.
