Sir Gregor died leaving a vast plantation for his sons, Tormund and Andre. Their uncle, Peter, wanted to control and be benefitting from the plantation, so he began sowing distrust among the brothers by secretly giving each of them provocative information and weapons against each other. As the fighting brothers are distracted from managing their plantation, the nasty uncle Peter feigns peacemaker while exploiting their plantation. Likewise, the politics of terrorism is often controlled by third parties who gain from both sides of the fight or at least join the winner in sharing the booty.
After being arrested for attacking his own country with biological weapons, Jonas Hodges highlights a dimension of several motives and methods in the politics of terrorism.[1]
Jack Bauer: Why did you attack your country with a biological weapon?
Jonas Hodges: “the plan was to launch simultaneous attacks early next year, multiple cities, so the public will finally see that government cannot protect them, they demand drastic measures, and WE STEP IN.”
Jack Bauer: “How would you justify that to the American People?”
Jonas Hodges: “Simple! Offload the blame, we gonna supply to the enemies who wanna destroy this country: Mohammed this, Ahmed that from sleeper cells and parties you don’t even know they exist.”
Terrorism is “violence or the threat of violence, especially bombing, kidnapping, and assassination, carried out for political purposes.”[2] It is the use of violence or threats to intimidate or coerce, mainly for political purposes.[3] Terrorism is often instigated and controlled by people who wish to benefit from the chaos it creates. Thus, Politics of terrorism is manipulation of people to fight one another in order to create opportunities for some gains. Factors influencing politics of terrorism and its manipulation include:
- Lack of enlightenment: “No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”[4] Everybody seeks happiness, especially through means they have been taught by the environment, religion, schools or media. A child who grew in a cannibalistic society searches for happiness through killing and eating other people. Hence, social/moral education influences human perception in their search for happiness.
- Moral ignorance, different from intellectual ignorance of scientific facts and methods, contributes to the sustenance of politics of terrorism. While political instigators of terrorism seek happiness in accumulating wealth and power at human cost, the perpetrators of terrorism seek happiness in the fulfilment of their twisted religious doctrine or philosophy. In most countries, instigators of terrorism seek to distract the people or their government from undertaking policies that may reduce the instigators’ gain or access, like in the military or resource-control.
- Arms dealers and brokers: the financial cost of performing terrorist activities or fighting terrorism are high. It requires purchasing lots of arms, ammunitions and war machines from arms dealers, who are eager to make profits. Hence, some arms dealers would even cause or support terrorism in order to make sales.
- Greedy marketers: some marketers of life-sustaining commodities like water and food insist that war is good for business. During war, local production stops, importers are scared of warzones, and desperation rises among the people. In such desperate time, marketers make double or triple profits from those who can afford to buy sustaining supplies at any amount quoted by marketers. Marketers may not be directly guilty of instigating terror, yet it may not be out of place for them to desire a situation that triples their profit.
- International beneficiaries of mineral resources: in this era of globalization, developing countries, especially in Africa, keep supplying mineral resources to developed nations and buying finished products. Any attempt to start using these resources for local industry may threatens the foreign industrialist’s access to their resources. Hence, the industrialised nations that depend on mineral resources from the underdeveloped nations could distract the resource-owners through politics of terrorism. Hence, there are allegations that resource-rich countries are distracted from owning or using their resources by externally armed rebels/terrorists.
“Permanent UN members have been shipping weapons to Terrorist’s cells, for at a least three years. Those so-called “moderates”. They use diplomatic planes to carry weapons to war zones.”[5]
Politics of terrorism requires moral ignorance, especially of the perpetrator, to grow. Thus, Prosperous peaceful societies take certain measures to protect their citizens from manipulations.
- They organize and educate people both morally and intellectually.
- They make proper agreements on the modes of collaboration for productivity and harmony.
- They engage all their people in productive activities, to avoid idle and exploitable people.
- They resolve conflicts without involving outsiders who may take advantage of the situation.
- They portray a very good image of themselves and their society to the world.
However, in places where it has begun already, the society could take some steps to manage its effect and spread:
- Apply required force to fight off the perpetrators.
- Trace and arrest internal instigators of terrorism.
- When safe, trace and notify external instigators of suspicions about their involvement.
- Ensure enlightenment of citizens through the media, churches, schools and other gatherings.
- Engage the citizens productively, gainfully and morally, so they are not idle for manipulation.
- Discuss and deduct some percentage of citizens’ incomes to buy shares for them in government co-owned industries, so that they can be getting dividends from the business profits. With shares and steady dividends from government co-owned industries, citizens will likely protect the society and government property, instead of bombing them. For they now have something to lose.
There may not be an easy cure for moral ignorance, which leads to politics of terrorism as we do not know everything. Yet, governments and societies will continue to make efforts to achieve social justice as the best guarantee for security in human society.
[1] Joel Surnow, 24, Season 7, Episode 20
[2] Microsoft® Encarta® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
[3] Terrorism. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved February 7, 2018 from Dictionary.com website http://www.dictionary.com/browse/terrorism
[4] Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Vindication of rights of men, 1790. Extracted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft#Vindication_of_the_Rights_of_Men_.281790.29 on 11-09-2017
[5] https://worldclasscitizenrylabel.com/fake-diplomacy-un-permanent-members-are-the-leading-forces-of-terrorism-around-the-world