Most things in the world are relative and most of the truths as subjective. How big a problem is depends on the person; for one the problem might appear grave and for the other it may not seem a problem at all. Likewise, how moral an act is also depends upon the person, one may consider it bad and for the rest it may be morally acceptable. The same is true about terrorism, whether it is international terrorism or at the lower levels of human association.
For some international terrorism is the threat which involves the existence of human race on the earth, or at least at the regional levels. For others it is not so great a threat and they move with their lives without bothering about this menace. And, for still others it is a great opportunity to get fortunes out of the menace of the international terrorism. There actually are many people, and countries, who gain monetary and material benefits out of terrorism.
Coming to the moral aspect, a terrorist never considers himself as a terrorist. For him the acts of destruction are all acceptable as they are entitled to bring great revolution, or great change. It is not a concern for him that while doing this great loss is caused to human life; it is not an issue if he himself gets killed in the process. This all the terrorists believe or are indoctrinated to believe.
Continuing with the moral aspects, the followers of terrorists consider the latter as heroes, sacrificing their lives for the greater good. They provide all the material and logistical support to the terrorists in order that the good may get served. What that good is one fails to understand in most of the cases of terrorist acts. Why people support such terrorists who kill only for terrorizing others is also beyond human comprehension.
This is something about individual terrorists, or about the terrorist groups who are confined only to specific regions. But our main concern, when it comes to international terrorism, should be the terrorist organizations which are present in many countries in an integrated manner. They carry out their operations in a manner where planning is carried out in one country and execution is conducted in some other country. Their leadership is in one corner of the world and the operatives are in some other corner.
To be realistic, and if we want to deal with the problem realistically, the individual terrorists or groups and international terrorist organizations are not a big problem to deal devoid of any support from any country of the world. But, unfortunately that is not the case; they are supported by one or other country. They are provided all the logistical, moral and material support by these countries.
More painful is the truth that some countries themselves resort to worst kinds of terrorist acts, either to subdue their rivals or to fulfill their so called national interests by such acts. They behave in an erratic manner and lack consistency in the international politics. Their word and deeds never coincide with each other; they say something and do entirely an opposite thing. They speak peace but spread hatred and violence.
They treat the same person, country or a group differently at differently times. At one time the person, country or group is treated as terrorist or supporter of the terrorists and at other times the labels like supporters of peace and supporters of counterterrorist operations are used depending on the expediency of national politics, or international compulsions.
Therefore, the concept and practice of international terrorism, or terrorism in general, are so complex that it is hardly known where the source of the problem lies actually. It is a web of webs where no one knows which link leads to where. However, one thing is for sure that in most cases of terrorism it is not the actual terrorists who promote terrorism but the countries that support them. The terrorists in many cases turn out to be the victims rather than perpetrators of the crimes.
It needs a scientific and impartial approach to reach to the source of this problem. Those who have used this approach have labeled the so called savors of humanity as the greatest terrorists in the world. Take for example Noam Chomsky he says in response to a question by Isabelle Kumar of Euronews about two terrorist countries in the world, Middle East in particular, “the united States and Israel, the two major nuclear states in the world. I mean there is a reason why, in international polls run by US polling agencies, the United States is regarded as the greatest threat to the world peace by an overwhelming margin. No other country is even close. It is a kind of interesting that the US media refused to publish this”.
If we consider the recent instances in the world we can ourselves see and prove that. The United States is directly involved in misadventures which have terrorized and tormented many countries and their people. The basis on which it has been done, and is being done, have proved all fabricated. Plus, the indirect support it provides to the terrorist groups the world over is sufficient a reason to declare this state as the greatest terrorist state that human history has ever produced considering the losses that are caused by her acts to human life and property.
There is hardly any terrorist organization which is not used by the United States to fulfill some ambiguous interests – Calling such interests as national interests of the US is hard to justify because in the long run they are going to hurt her. If they are not used directly to fight in the name of US, they are used in such a way where the United States gets an opportunity to interfere and attack those countries and regions where it is not otherwise justifiable for her.
Whether it is Al Quaida, Taliban or ISIS, some links go back to US, as suggested by many impartial observers of the international relations. They have been created by the US or receive funding from the US. They have been and are being used for diverse purposes; to malign Muslims and Islam, to fight the rival countries like the erstwhile USSR, to provide her opportunity to subdue and sabotage other countries and their regimes etcetera.
Saying that the United States is the only promoter of global terrorism is an oversimplification and misplaced statement. There are many countries that have made terrorism part of their foreign policies. Though that is not clearly mentioned in their foreign policy documents for that can’t be written there but the actions resulting from the policy documents speak louder.
These countries even resort to silence the genuine aspirations of people by using different terror tactics. They label innocent people as terrorists and give terrorists authority to kill innocents. The innocent people know not why they are being killed, why they are treated the way they are treated. Their rights are mutilated and races butchered.
From Myanmar to Syria, Palestine to Kashmir, Yemen to Pakistan, Somalia to Nigeria, Afghanistan to minorities in India and Libya to Egypt, all these countries and people are suffering because the support of one or the other country, the state support of terrorism to gain economic or strategic ends against the competitors. The economic aspect of it is such that terrorism has been made as a high return industry where armaments are supplied to terrorist organizations to gain huge profits.
Eventually, the complex problem, as the international terrorism is, needs a sophisticated and multipronged approach to deal with it. First of all it needs the problems needs to be dealt objectively, not subjectively. Objective analysis of the problem will show that there is no beneficiary of international terrorism. It is a double edged sword which strikes the wielder sooner or later.
Then the real terrorists, including the countries creating, supporting & propagating terrorism and using it as an instrument of state policy should be identified, if they are not already identified. No doubt such countries are powerful but by identifying them at least we could stop falling victim of their subversive acts and activities. We could at least restrain supporting them in their acts of terrorism in the name of counterterrorism.
All the other sources of international terrorism will be easier to deal with in the absence of support from these countries. And, as for as the individual terrorists and groups confined to a limited area are concerned, they can be dealt effectively by using the diverse techniques of diplomacy and dialogue. Redressal of their genuine demands could aid a long way in convincing them to give up violence. Unfinished agendas of international relations also need to be finished so as to end violence at other places of the world.
Terrorism, including international terrorism, can’t be defeated by the way and means that are applied currently. When the means and measures are devised and applied by the countries which use terrorism as an instrument of their foreign policies, their fate can well be imagined. Time is to differentiate between the true and false, terror and the real means of counter terrorism. If this is not done, terrorism cannot be defeated.
Fayaz Ganaie can be reached at fayaz.greatstep@gmail.com
