Lessons from Suicide Terrorism

[Oscar]

Lessons from Suicide Terrorism

By Jeff & Diana Jewell, Mission BC, Canada

November 16, 2015

( Posted with their permission . . .)

Through Western eyes, acts of suicide terrorism are seen as horrific atrocities against hundreds of innocent victims.

But through the eyes of the suicide terrorists, such acts are seen as revenge for perceived acts of mass destruction committed by Western forces against many more of their brethren or those of their faith. This is not to accept their perception of reality, but simply to acknowledge that it is what drives them to make the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives for their cause.

Suicide terrorism is clearly a crime with no repeat offenders. So one should expect that every suicide terrorist has been not only highly motivated but also quite careful in selecting the scene of their crime. This would make it both appropriate and advisable for targeted nations to reflect upon why they were chosen.

Sadly, most Western leaders have no interest in examining whether the terrorism may be desperate acts of retaliation for some of their own decisions, or their nations' hostile acts against the terrorists' nations and kinfolk. Instead, the knee-jerk reaction by most people and leaders of Western nations is ultra-patriotic outrage with demands for retaliation that would escalate and perpetuate the cycle of violence and destruction.

In the aftermath of the 2015/11/13 terrorism in Paris, some have deemed this to be a 'declaration of war on the West' by ISIS/ISIL. Such rhetoric is an attempt to inflame public support for more war. Regardless of their fanatical intentions, the Islamic jihadists have no military capacity to wage war on the West—but they can strike terror in the hearts of any Western city and much of the Western population.

Moreover, the jihadists also have more than enough grievances against many Western nations—which in their minds oblige them to exact retribution against innocent victims in the West. And they hold such hatred with such blind faith that many of them are willing to sacrifice their lives.

Sadly, the Islamic world is a seething cauldron of fanaticism and hatred amidst the rubble of devastated nations with millions of victims and refugees. And even more sadly, this hopeless state of their world is a direct consequence of the asymmetric warfare committed by many Western leaders, supported by many if not most of their people.

Asymmetric warfare is a major part of the problem—with the Western side having essentially all the firepower, technology and money—against a demonized enemy that is virtually defenseless and powerless, and consequently suffers almost all of the casualties and destruction. Under such unbalanced realities, combined with Islamophobia and heated rhetoric, one can understand how Western leaders and their people seem so bent on waging such wars. However, Western aggression against Islamic nations has produced another dimension of asymmetry—radical Islam—which has its own unique force of suicidal terrorism.

Continuation or escalation of any military option would extend an endless cycle of atrocities, terrorism, devastation, and streams of refugees, with ever-increasing costs measured in millions of lives and trillions of dollars. The estimated toll for the Western interventions just in Iraq and Afghanistan: 1.45 million Iraqi lives; 4.8 thousand US military lives; 3.5 thousand international troops; $1.65 trillion. Imagine the difference if even 10% of that expenditure had been used to help rather than devastate these countries and their people.

The inescapable lesson is that bombing produces many terrible consequences—including suicide terrorism as blowback inflicted on innocent citizens of bombing nations. Surely it's time for Western leaders to lead the world in serious discussions to find ways to stop this cycle of violence. And it's time for Canada to transition from belligerence to its historical role as a peace-keeping nation, under the auspices of the UN, for which our former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson received the Nobel Peace Prize!