[UAH] Maybe We Call It "The War On The Cycle Of Revenge" Instead...

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Maybe We Call It "The War On The Cycle Of Revenge" Instead...

The war on terror and all the violence around it is the biggest single cause for worry for world citizens today.

Regional and localized conflicts tend to be pegged on to this world conflict with different implications depending on who is calling the other a "terrorist".

Of course governments are the ones with the option to name any armed opponent by that term, though sometimes it is said to be in a bid to legitimize some of their heavy handed actions against internal dissent particularly in Africa and Asia.

The recent killing of a soldier in the UK by two armed men, was called an act of terror mainly because of the statements made by the killers right after their incredible murder in broad daylight on the streets outside the barracks.

They claimed it was in retaliation for what they suffer under western attacks on their people.

Al Shabab in East Africa and Al Qaeda with its affiliates around the world go about the same business all day, everyday.

So is their a legitimate reason for someone to leave their normal civil life to go and hack a fellow human being to death or rip out ones heart and take a bite at it and still think its the right thing to do?

In my personal quest for understanding of what causes such madness, it maybe easier to first recall the events of 9/11/2001 in New York.

For me, those events unfolded online from the newsroom computer in the radio station I was working for back then.

It seemed like every time I refreshed the page, something more dramatic would have happened. First, I find breaking news of a plane that has crashed into a building. Then the panic and rescue in the streets of New York.

Then a second plane (now that's the point when I really felt a chilling effect at the back of my head)

I refresh the page some minutes later, only to find a whole skyscraper has collapsed and a monster cloud of rage is attacking the streets of the city, chasing after screaming crowds and scampering law enforcement officers around street corners.

When another building comes down... I start questioning my own sanity if what I am viewing is reality or a super hero movie where Godzilla is next to appear in New York.

Just like anyone who lived through this live on TV, online, in the papers, on radio or even on the streets of Manhattan, the feeling was the same: Total disbelief.

But then something happened that many would like to forget ever happened: Celebrations in some regions of this world (particularly the Middle East, Asia and to some milder extent Africa) with T-shirts of Bin Laden surfacing on the streets in the following weeks.


Going by their comments, one would sum up their feelings in one way: They felt vindicated.

But that celebration alone, even without the reasons as they had explained, actually only served to fuel more sentiments of revenge from the now new victims; The American people

And that is where the core ingredient of terrorism finds its roots: In Revenge

While others were celebrating for a revenge that they considered worthy of their previous sufferings, the new victims were now preparing revenge of untold proportions for what was now called "an act of terror".

This cycle then took a life of its own like an old steam train starting off on a long journey to wherever the rails were going to end.

And that is the problem, there is simply no end in sight especially when those supposed to bring sanity into the arena have also been sucked into the war mongering machine themselves. I am talking of the United Nations and other significant regional organizations across all continents.

My conclusion is therefore that, if the war on terror focused more on fighting hatred by literally throwing a spanner in the works of that cycle of retribution, maybe some good policies, war tactics and international commitments could be developed that could actually win the war on terror in the most unexpected way.

Fighting the perpetuation of revenge could possibly be an effective treatment to this modern syndrome as it would at least enable one to envisage an end to the cycle of violence by initiating practical, tangible steps to stop it.

In this era of possible endless fighting against a vaporous enemy, someone has to take the lead. Someone has to say no to the other "dumb war" still in continuation.

The war on terror is said to be a war against fear, yet the terrorists seem to want only one thing: Revenge.

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