Terrorism and society

OPINION: There have been multiple terrorist attacks this year, most recently in the UK but also in Europe and the Middle East.  I think in Europe and Britain especially there is now a high state of alert for the possibility of other attacks.  Australia has also had its share of attention but thank goodness New Zealand had so far been spared – but there is no guarantee something may not happen here as well.

Terrorism has existed so long as people have been in physical conflict.  I suppose guerrilla warfare (unexpected armed raids from isolated groups in countries at war) also constitutes a form of terrorism.   Terrorism tends to be adopted as a form of conflict when one side simply does not have the resources to wage war in its full form (or does not want to) or knows it cannot win a conventional conflict –  terrorism is a low-cost alternative albeit with more limited but still powerful objectives. I think it is still accepted military doctrine that if you want to actually want to win a conflict and occupy the enemy territory you still need old-fashioned “boots on the ground”.  And finally, effective Terrorism depends on fanaticism – the existence of a cadre of people willing to take extraordinary risks, including certain death in some cases in order to achieve objectives.

It used to be that effective terrorism required significant resources – to train people, to put together suitable explosive devices, collect and train with firearms, learn means of avoiding detection and so on.  Terrorism made sense as a strategy so long as there was a cause which justified the input of these resources.  Terrorism needs a “cause” to drive its continuation even if the cause is limited in scope.

Recent terrorist attacks have seen some new features emerge which are alarming.  The increasing use of suicide bombers though not entirely new has introduced a new dimension because it becomes no longer necessary for the terrorist act to be covert (hidden) beyond a certain point.  The key element is to find enough volunteers to become suicide bombers and that is one area where the creation of suicide bombers through the radicalisation of young people, particularly through the internet, has been a real problem for the authorities.  In principle, the size of the candidate base is as limitless as the Internet itself.  The problem has become even more acute now that more suicide bombers are “home grown” rather than imported from elsewhere.  The downside of untrained suicide bombers is that they tend to be less effective and in some cases completely ineffective

The intelligence authorities, in particular, have been criticised for not having enough surveillance to pick up Terrorists groups or individuals in advance.  However, in truth, the job is almost impossible unless you take an absolutely draconian approach – which would be politically untenable – or commit a huge resource to the task.a

In practice, there is no sure defence against Terrorism – the task of anticipating and protecting targets is extremely difficult even if large resources are applied to the task.  But I think Terrorism can be countered as an effective weapon if a combination of the following responses can be brought together:

• The task of terrorism is to terrorise but if the population refuses to be terrorised or shows an increasing resistance to terrorism acts, then the terrorism begins to lose its point. In this respect, the response from the British and the Europeans have been right on the money.
• Similarly, national leaders need to show that their resolve to fight terrorism or pursue whatever cause has prompted the terrorism is strengthened and not diminished.
• There needs to be a committed response to terror acts so that those involved understand that they will be hunted and unsafe for the rest of their lives.  This obviously won’t work for suicide bombers but could make terrorists increasingly reluctant to take on this role.
• The whole community needs to become involved so that the option of simply melding into the local population during the preparatory stage becomes increasingly difficult and risky.  In this sense, the community also needs to have a good awareness of what they are looking for, e.g. characterising all Islamists as potential terrorists is not a sensible strategy and probably helps rather than hinders the terrorists by diluting the efforts of the community.  It also unnecessarily alienates what is potentially a very important and helpful part of the community.

It’s so important not to counter ‘like with like’ in the way the captured terrorists are treated.  Cumbersome though it might be the due processes of law, order and justice need to continue to apply, if nothing else as a practical demonstration that the terrorism or attempted terrorism has strengthened rather than weakened the national way of life.

Terrorism is like any “life form” – it will wither and die if it is not nourished by results; that is why it is so important to be staunch and to be strengthened not cowed by terrorist acts.

By Bas Walker

This is another of Bas Walker’s posts on GrownUps.  Please look out for his articles, containing his Beachside Ponderings.