Vive La France! (and everywhere else)

The horrific attacks in Beirut and Paris this weekend show us too clearly what is at stake for the West in the Middle East. Policy concerning Islamic extremists on both sides of the Shia/Sunni divide has been to somehow contain the situation and keep it under control. It is time to rethink this approach.

The kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympics in Munich was my introduction to the idea of international terrorism. I was 10. Since then such episodes have occurred regularly during my life and I, like many people, have become somewhat hardened by these events.

Over the years, I feel that two insidious ideas have crept into the way we think about such acts and I believe these must be deleted from our collective thinking if we are going to make the world safe for our children and grandchildren.

No Excuse, No Justification

While the dominant reaction to each terrorist act is outrage and solidarity, there is often a fainter, more malicious, story line that looks to explain the actions of murderous, crazy people and find some twisted logic that partially justifies, or explains their heinous acts.

Such justifications have to do with the suppression or cruelties that have been suffered by a people or the equally horrific acts that were perpetrated upon them at some point in time or place. Typically the opinion pieces start off by saying there is no justification for such act and then start with the world “but”.

The “but” was very much a part of the reaction to Charlie Hebdo and even the people murdered shopping at the kosher supermarket the same day!

A related idea is to blame the U.S. or other Western powers for the situation we currently face. Clearly a different course in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria would have produced different outcomes as would have a different approach to the region after World War I. The thing is that we still have to deal with the situation we are facing today and address it directly.

My first suggestion is to delete the “but”s and regulate legitimate grievance to the United Nations, the International Criminal Court and other such bodies. There can be no place for murder and  deadly mayhem in civilised society no matter what the issue or what the cause.

Far Far Away

The other idea that needs to be deleted is that there is difference where such acts take place.

In 2008, 164 citizens of Mumbai were killed in a deadly rampage that was similar, in some ways, to the attacks in Paris. At the time, the West urged the Indian government to use restraint in its reaction towards Pakistan, where Lakshar-e-taiba, the group that was responsible, have their bases and appear to enjoy tacit support.

Over the weekend the news and social media focused much more on Paris than an attack in Beirut which occurred the day before killing 43 and injuring many more. While it is understandable that we relate more to events closer to home or to places where we have friends and loved ones, our moral outrage should be the same whether the attack happens in Bali, Mombai, Moscow, Tulsa, Tunis, Beirut or Paris .

What to do about ISIS?

The question for the West is to choose between two very bad scenarios.

• One choice is to continue to try to contain the situation. This will lead to more attacks such as the one in Paris and the need to strengthen surveillance and rapid response in the West. If we take this path we will need to get used to heavily armed military personal on our streets to insure that they can respond in minutes to the next attack.
• Another is to mobilise the community of nations to eliminate the threat at its source. The U.S. experience in Iraq and Afghanistan does not, at first glance, give much chance of success for this option but I’m not sure what choices there are. Such an effort will require enormous amounts of what Niall Furgeson refers to as blood and treasure or in other words soldiers ready to risk their lives  and enormous amounts of money to fund the conflict and then to rebuild the countries afterwards.

Vive La France!

For me, France means liberté, égualité, and fraternité. If the West is going to defend these ideas from people who do not share them, I am afraid it is time to act in a concerted and unified way.