War on Terrorism - comment on the terrible events on 9/11

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Living with Fear and Uncertainty in a Changing World of Terrorism.

Violent tribalism and terrorism will be fed by globalization and injustice.

Most terrorism attacks on America will be against corporations and citizens

In less than half an hour our world was changed.

True Impact of World Trade Centre Pictures

The War Against Terrorism: Never before have five men armed with razor blades and pocket knives demonstrated such power.  Never before have ordinary men and women realized just how easy it is for a single act of terrorism to destroy the confidence of a nation as well as the corner of a great city.  And confidence is everything.  The terrorist events themselves in biological terms were pin-pricks - with very few deaths in relation to the entire population of America.  But the psychological impact of terrorism on that day will be felt for more than a generation.

Take air travel for example:

It is right to be sober. Every act of terrorism for the next hundred years will be measured by terrorists themselves against this new yardstick of terrible "success".
International Terrorism

Expect plenty more attacks by hundreds of different groups campaigning on different issues - despite every effort of governments around the world to prevent terrorism.  Expect an intense effort by ambitious terrorists to beat recent Hollywood-style disaster images with something even more dramatic, more awful, more panic-inducing.   The power of terrorism comes from fear of the unseen as well as the seen.  A mighty act which also perhaps unleashes biological weapons, bacteria, or viruses or radiation.

Fear is the greatest weakness of the "free" Western world, in a media-dominated age where people no longer trust government experts nor scientists.  Scare stories of terrorism travel fast and inflame the mind.

As I wrote in the first edition of Futurewise, Tribalism feeds terrorism. Tribalism is the most powerful force on earth, more powerful than all the atomic bombs on earth, the US, Russian and Chinese armies combined.  What happened at the World Trade Towers is unfortunately only one expression of a wider and deeper tribalism which will continue to impact the lives of billions of people over the next twenty years.
The roots of terrorism were sown long in the past and the branches will dominate our future.

Tribalism is intimately connected with terrorism:  when one mass of people identify only with themselves and their values, and see others as lesser beings, then the ground is set for permanent conflict.

Most wars for the last twenty years have been wars inside nations rather than between them: wars over culture and ideology, conflicts that affect tribal groups and loyalties rather than national boundaries and identity, where one or both sides often resort to terrorism.  Expect that pattern to continue regardless of the response the US and other countries make to recent events, and the inevitable counter-reactions that are provoked.
The lesson of history shows that counter terrorism requires more than military action and intelligence gathering.

It's incorrect to say that Islamic Fundamentalism is the root of the global terrorism threat.  The truth is that the forces and causes of terrorism are far more diverse. The fact is that there are hundreds of small to large groups today who use random attacks on civilian and commercial targets as a means of getting attention and winning support (they hope).  Take the patterns of terrorism in Chechnya, Kosovo, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, the Basque separatists and more recent rioting in anti-globalisation protests.  It's just the start.

If terrorism thrives on tribalism, then a sense of injustice is what feeds tribalism.  When a group feels they are marginalised, their power destroyed, their people victimised, their voices unheard, then violent protests are sure to follow.

The trouble is that there has never been a time in human history when so many millions have felt "just" grievances.  One such issue is the growing gulf between the rich and the poor, the destitute and the power-players.  Another is the claim by the United Nations that sanctions against Iraq have resulted in the deaths of over 500,000 children.  Another is the desperate situation of millions of near-starving people in Africa and Asia who see their super-rich global villagers on CNN every day.

Attacks and raids on the Taliban in Afghanistan, biological warfare retaliation by terrorists (anthrax at first) that may or may not be associated with Osama Bin Laden, other terrorist acts - it is easy to set up a cycle of low grade conflict as we have seen in many parts of the world. These cycles of terrorism can fuel acts of violence for generations and are difficult to stop.
The new world order will have to address all these fundamental global challenges, as well as issues of security.

In the meantime, expect ethics and values to become ever more important to every company, large corporation, organization, politician and people group.

Never has it been more important for the whole of humanity together to agree how we can build a better kind of world.

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deaira

November 17, 2008 - 15:28

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww thats sad

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