Terrorism

I read a very simplistic article against terrorism.  The author tried to define terrorism in a rather peculiar way.  To his judgment, Israel’s military inroad to defenseless Palestinian cities is for the sake of peace, “But the minute some kid picks up a rock, the whole thing goes out the window.”  Yeah right, tell the kid (who happened to have lost his brother, his sister, his father, his mother, his friends, and everything he has come to know and love) “Remove the terrorists and you've neutralized the Israeli army.”  But don’t you ever relieve your anger by throwing a stone at monstrous tanks.

In other words, the new world order is based on a simple formula.  Oppressed people have no right to uprising.  They have no right to defend their own rights except by passive resistance!  Aggressors would love that.  They can easily employ the most advanced military machinery to terrorize a whole nation, or a region, or even worst, a religion, and all you are allowed to do is passive resistance.  Even with passive resistance against aggressor, you are supposed to remove terrorists aggressively to neutralize aggressor’s army.  Having such a mindset, it is quite natural not to understand why the fight against terrorism actually helps its expansion to new dimensions.

The media is not interested in different shapes and forms of terrorism, but simply a very isolated type of terrorism, specifically non governmental terrorism or the ones that is backed by non democratic governments.  That is a very crucial distinction to make.  That is why Mr. Know-it-all, and any like minded person, basically has the basic assumption that democratic governments are infallible.  In other words, as long as rogue regimes which are installed and/or backed by the supper power, follow the new world order, they are free to terrorize their own people for decades.  But, hey watch out, the moment you become arrogant enough to terrify “real people” who are, of course, westerners or Israelis then you are a terrorist without the shadow of a doubt!

While I abhor terrorism on either side, his argument is fallacious because Hamas and Hizbullah tactics were direct responses to Israel’s blood thirsty greed for Palestinian land not the other way around.  The symbolic gesture of terrorism fails on both sides of the isle.  No matter how you sanitize atrocities in either Iraq or Palestine.  Neither America’s invasion nor Israel’s incursion is justified by either democratic values or human rights.  Real ordinary citizens are paying the high price of terrorism whether you call it shock and awe for military excellence or suicide bombing for religious martyrdom.

How easy it is to play double standards blaming a religion for the act of its followers.  Hitler’s atrocities against Jews did not vitiate Christianity a bit, but “The acts of al-Qaeda and its supporters will tarnish Islam for centuries to come.”  Come on Mr. Know-it-all, Are you telling us that you are that far off the reality.  The Bush administration preemptive war fiasco tarnished democracy for centuries to come.  It actually made the whole world’s population who were indifferent in the Middle East affairs, to sympathize with both Palestinians and Iraqis. 

Mr. Know-it-all also confuses internal sociopolitical injustice with external occupation.  Except for the unique case of India, no foreign power occupied his state examples, i.e. America for apartheid.  Once again, I agree, “Terrorism is a creation of man.” but economic and military power does not baptize acts of terrorism in the name of democracy.  Democracy is simply a form of government.  Freedom is the inalienable right of every human being no matter where he lives or to what form of government he pledges his allegiance to or is forced to do so.  No democratic government has the right to force its way of gubernatorial affairs to other people.

I do not intend to reply to every single statement he makes to justify American Imperialism or to invite oppressed people of the world to an expired ideology of passive resistance.  Nor I would support terrorism in any form for whatever cause.  What I do believe in is the ultimate responsibility of intelligentsia to free itself from biased opinion, to distance itself from power centers, to stop blaming victims for the crime, and finally to speak out laud against any form of human rights violations.

Democracy has become the sacred religion of our time.  As is the case with any sacred faith, democracy has its own master.  Not too long ago, Church was the center of genocide in the name of love, and, to a lesser degree, Mosque was the seat of atrocity in the name of equality before god, the merciful, the benevolent.  Now, the super power of the new millennium rules over democracy.  But this one is completely a different sacred animal!  It draws its devious power from the rule of majority. 

Sanitized news is filtered through TV screens of all sizes to feed this majority who is either frustrated of his working environment or is bombarded by violent movies, when he lies down on his comfortable couch munching popcorn on unemployment benefits.  It is obvious, how easy it is for the media to manipulate his mindset or even worst to outsource his anger to some despot half way around the globe.

Is the new world order a promise when warmonger idiots don’t even know how to play the game?  All they have to do is to smile in front of such media.  It is hard to believe, but substance is also a casualty of injustice when diplomacy lost its credibility to the concept of media PRESENTATION.  It is no longer what you do; it is how you present it.  That is how jack booted Israelis roll their tanks into every corner of a Palestinian alley terrorizing women and children, and still look professionals doing their jobs, but a kid’s throwing stone at the armored tanks is an act of terrorism.  This same characterization frustrates even the most tolerant kid to become an easy suicide bomber in the hands of non governmental terrorists.

We must remember Israel is a democracy, but Palestine is not even recognized as a nation.  Also, the media expect us to believe a democracy has every right to invade a sovereign nation just because the majority of its people can easily be deceived to fear a non existent imminent threat.  Now, how in the hell you can side with a people who are oppressed from within and without against a so called democracy who controls most of the media. 

In conclusion, the days of Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, and passive resistance are over.  Media may paint a nice picture of a terrible atrocity, and show it to the whole world or ignore it altogether, but it cannot change the mind of the little kid who was terrified witnessing the killing of his loved ones with his own eyes in his hideout.  One simply fools himself, and insult the intelligence of others if he expects the kid to even care if Israel is a democracy or not.