There is a "civil war" raging in far too many states. We do talk about "warlords" creating havoc in developing countries when referring to some sub-Saharan nations. There is a "war on drugs." The word "war" has become far too mainstream to have any real significance attached to it. Youngsters go on a rampage and kill each other in London? A war is declared! Drugs? Let's fight a war against them!The more we use the word "war" the more we get used to it, accepting it as normal. Another war here, one more there? Who cares! I am worried about the radicalization of our languages that can only benefit those who actually think they do stage a war -- or holy war -- against democracy and civilized societies.
A deadly and cowardly attack by militants against the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan a few days ago put a country that has enough bad publicity back on the global terror map. But neither India after the horrific attacks in Mumbai nor Sri Lanka after this week's incident is at war with Pakistan. They actually cooperate with Pakistan to rid this nation of elements who confuse ideological freedom with murder. The Associated Press (March 5, 2009) compared the Lahore attacks with those at the 1972 Munich Olympics during which 11 Israeli team members were murdered. They mention the fact that the convoy carrying the Sri Lankan cricketers used the same route five days in a row, hence making them an easy target.
Is it true that intelligence services can survey suspected individuals and make certain that they do not convert to terrorism? This is difficult if not totally impossible, to say the least. So, a key task is to stop terrorists from crossing borders. If a jobless male or female without a national insurance or social security number to back up his or her photo ID is flying from Rio de Janeiro to Nairobi, intending to then connect to a plane headed for İslamabad and paying in cash -- well, your guess is as good as mine. In this scenario would we be curtailing our freedoms if this person is refused entry into the country of choice or would we perhaps help to prevent a new act of terror?
Frankly speaking I do not mind to being asked at Heathrow Airport whether or not I have something to declare -- a French citizen who did not pay a credit card installment in Lyon or a Belgian motorist who did not pay a speeding ticket in Antwerp will not be incarcerated in a high-security prison upon arrival in the UK...
Terror is carried out by individuals acting alone or in small groups. Latter-day terrorists are not the type of state-sponsored activists who plan to install a racist regime similar to Hitler's Nazi Germany. They act on impulse after having been trained in a certain countries. They have no visible professional future wherever they live. But they must have very intelligent backers. Intelligent not in the sense of aiding society by improving oneself, but by having access to educated backers who in turn have access to money, training, weapons and logistics. However, states that openly engage in terrorism are far and few in between. Was it Iraq? Is it Iran? Can it be North Korea with its image of being the last remaining Stalinist dictatorship in the world, as even Cuba is waking up? Shall we invade Somalia?
If we declare war against everything, the terminology may add fuel to an already burning house. We more easily accept a "war-like" situation and more openly accept a curtailing of our civic liberties. Remember the Nairobi traveler I invented above -- it could be us who will be added onto airlines' blacklists because we have lost our job, forgot our social security card at home, spent redundancy monies to buy an airline ticket to fly around the world and always wanted to visit an archaeological site near İslamabad anyway... as I wrote before, your guess -- or the airport security team's guess -- is as good as mine.
Turkish society is based on principles of freedom and tolerance. I personally do not approve of the fact that most teenagers seem to engage in violent computer games when visiting Internet cafes instead of reading about science, but I do not declare war on computer games. I am a non-smoker but have not declared war against my colleagues at work who do smoke.
Terror and the war against it seem to have become household names as if both are here to stay forever. Our societies and we as individuals must engage much more in fighting terror, stopping it, preventing it and hopefully one day cure the symptoms that led to it in the first place. A key ingredient in all of this is that we must rid ourselves of the idea that terror originates in mountains far away.
Think about the Lahore gang -- well equipped with high-energy dry fruits, state-of-the-art weapons and a master plan based on intelligence. Think about one of the Sept. 11 bombers who had just finished his university thesis. While we can not trivialize terror, we cannot allow ourselves to be terrorized by it, either. Linguistics and language do matter in this regard.
