IS knows what it’s doing. They are trying to get us to abandon our commitment to open societies, freedom of assembly and movement, and government defined by the consent of the governed rather than government defined by race, national identity, or religious affiliation. Theirs is a state walled off from the world, where everyone has to think the same way, worship the same God or face ghastly deaths and enslavement. I have no qualms about calling our side civilization and their side barbarism, but we must be vigilant in ensuring our own community endures freely and openly in the face of this fear.
Please share widely!
kbusch says
There’s the authoritarian impulse exemplified perhaps by Giuliani who never wanted us to forget the Lesson of 9/11. If President, he might not have ever gone to Cuba but, if he did, he would certainly have rushed home today so that we could be quiver in fear as he re-enacted multiple versions of Security Theater. Fox News too seems to convey a constant concern that we are insufficiently fearful.
necturus says
I wish people would stop conflating terrorism with war. Terrorism is not war. The object of war is to force one’s enemy to submit to one’s power, or else be destroyed. Terrorism, on the other hand, is done for publicity. The terrorist is not a soldier; he is a criminal whose actions are done to promote a cause.
IS, or Daesh as I prefer to call it, will not determine anyone’s destiny. It is fighting a real war in Syria and Iraq, but its actions in Paris and Brussels aren’t military in nature. Unlike the Germans in 1940, Daesh has no Panzer divisions or Fallschirmtruppen; a handful of bomb-throwing criminals are not the Luftwaffe. There have been bomb-throwing criminals before, from the anarchists of the 1880’s to the Unabomber and Timothy McVeigh; the demise of Daesh will not mean the end of terrorism.
We should not fear terrorist attacks; we are far more likely to die in traffic accidents, yet we willingly hop into our cars and brave the dangers of the road every day.
Our media, by spreading terrorist messages and by magnifying the threat of terrorism all our of proportion to reality, actively aid and abet terrorists. Until that changes, there will always be terrorism.
SomervilleTom says
Here is the most important line (to me) of this marvelous post:
edgarthearmenian says
in England, that the terrorists were planning a takeover of the nuclear plant nearby. Call it what you will, Tom, terrorism or war–it is nothing to fuck around with.
Christopher says
Some are arguing against OVERreaction.
jconway says
Terrorism is a political tactic. I agree with my old professor Bob Pape that the reason IS keeps doing attacks like this is to take advantage of our open societies and exploit them for assymetrical advantage in their broader ideological fight.
Their goal is to subvert democratic government by making us fearful, making us close our borders and our societies, and deliberately
stoking racial and religious divisions to make this a clash of civilizations.
It is a Clash of Civilization vs. barbarism, not civilizations versus one another. the Islamic civilization vs. Western civilization but the Civilized world of the entire global community vs. some of the worst barbarians and criminals on the planet.
Their money is drying up along with their recruitment, these brazen actions are desperate pleas for attention that kill and maim innocents but that aren’t the signs of a gathering storm but a withering autocracy that is no longer sustainable.