BANANACUE
REPUBLIC
Vol I, No. 12
Nov 24, 2004

 
 
 by Daphne Cardillo

CONTENTS

Terrorism

The first of January last year found me browsing over a compilation of Internet chats carried on by different citizens of the world a few days after the 9/11 attack at the World Trade Center in Washington DC and the Pentagon.  Among those who were chatting were mostly American citizens while some others come from New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, Croatia and a few undetermined places.  With cyberspace, people of different nationalities are interacting directly with each other, simplifying the world into one global community.  This time however, the issue that has been projected to a global scale is terrorism.  To my mind though and simply by following the news, terrorism is an American phenomenon --its inherent affliction.  Only that Americans are found in many countries around the world and the US government's interests are spread across the globe that terrorism has acquired an international status.

Interestingly enough in the course of the conversations, most of the American nationals were in an introspective mood and tone, asking themselves where they have gone wrong.  They were questioning about their government's foreign policies and were even enumerating the accompanying violence that went with those policies (i.e., bombing the Serbs in Kosovo or a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, economic sanctions in Iraq, etc, etc.).  They were realizing that the principles of freedom and democracy they so fervently espouse were not replicated abroad.  Instead, their own government is supporting repression and militarism in other lands if only to ensure the liberty and freedom of the individual American living inside and outside the US mainland.

Before the September 11 event, any government's fight against those they considered terrorists were usually met with derision from other nationals as another form of imperialism or simple foreign intervention.  But after that home ground attack and with more than half of the world's population sympathizing the Americans, the US government has acquired a tacit approval from the global community for any counterattack operation.  Yet the most interesting result of the 9/11 bombing is that the US government has somewhat acquired an international license--though not through the United Nations--to pursue any terrorist.  By the same token, terrorism has acquired an all-embracing meaning.  The US government is taking the authority to define and declare who are the terrorists.  And oddly enough, the Philippines National Democratic Front (along with its ilk Jose Maria Sison et al) which has been struggling for a belligerency status all these years is now being reduced to a terrorist organization.

The problem with the US government's fight against terrorism is its arbitrary declarations of who the terrorists are.  Unlike its previous fight against communism, the US government is taking a freer hand in clamping down terrorists primarily because of the vagueness of the nature of terrorism itself.

Terrorism knows no bounds of territory, race, or nationality.  The motives for any terrorist attack cannot even be ascertained.  Economic, political, or religious causes often overlap with each other complicating matters more.  Then as of late, the conflict of civilization or the war against cultures is being highlighted as probably cause.  Yet if we try to thresh out the trimmings that surround terrorism, we see its root as simple violence.  The violence inflicted by a strong nation to another through economic exploitation, political domination, and cultural obliteration.  The case is plain disrespect for other people living in this world.  In the case of America, what it so zealously fight for its people in terms of individual freedom and liberty it flagrantly denies the same to those people it uses for its own ends.  No wonder a lot of American nationals ask: "why do they hate us?"

History tells us that most people cowered in this kind of violence although there were few brave souls who made heroic marks at resistance.  And it was through this successful resistance that justice has been gradually acquired and continued violence is being lessened.  For several decades now, some countries in the Middle East peopled mostly by Muslims have been experiencing this kind of violence from a superpower.  Fortunately for them, they've got the blood, the faith, and the determination to resist being stamped on their feet.  Any terrorist acts attributed to them have been faint reactions to the inherent violence inflicted on their people.  What happened in New York and Washington DC is the same kind of resistance conducted by guerillas through ambush attacks.  What made it so catastrophic is simply that it happened in the 21st century where a few square meter space of land can be accommodated by thousands of people through a multi-sensory structure.  Advanced knowledge and modern technology aided the terrorists, while sophistication lent its piece.

Indeed, much as we profess ourselves to be civilized, modern day humanity is far from being humane with its forerunners being ruled by raw emotions of hatred, envy, and greed.  If violence continues to be inflicted by the strong over the weak, then terrorism is here to stay.

Posted 11/23/04.  Send your comment to bananacue_republic@yahoo.com
 

"...if we try to thresh out the trimmings that surround terrorism, we see its root as simple violence.  The violence inflicted by a strong nation to another through economic exploitation, political domination, and cultural obliteration."