| Terrorism
- War on Terrorism
War with Iraq - History of Terrorism
Living with Fear and Uncertainty
in a Changing World of Terrorism
Violent tribalism and terrorism will
be fed by globalization and injustice
Most terrorism attacks on America will be against corporations and
citizens
In less than half an hour our world
was changed.
True Impact of World Trade Centre
Pictures
The War Against Terrorism: Never before
have five men armed with razor blades and pocket knives demonstrated
such power. Never before have ordinary men and women realized
just how easy it is for a single act of terrorism to destroy the
confidence of a nation as well as the corner of a great city.
And confidence is everything. The terrorist events themselves
in biological terms were pin-pricks - with very few deaths in relation
to the entire population of America. But the psychological
impact of terrorism on that day will be felt for more than a generation.
Take air travel for example:
It is right to be sober. Every act of terrorism for
the next hundred years will be measured by terrorists themselves
against this new yardstick of terrible "success".
International Terrorism
Expect plenty more attacks by hundreds of different
groups campaigning on different issues - despite every effort of
governments around the world to prevent terrorism. Expect
an intense effort by ambitious terrorists to beat recent Hollywood-style
disaster images with something even more dramatic, more awful, more
panic-inducing. The power of terrorism comes from fear
of the unseen as well as the seen. A mighty act which also
perhaps unleashes biological weapons, bacteria, or viruses or radiation.
Fear is the greatest weakness of the "free" Western
world, in a media-dominated age where people no longer trust government
experts nor scientists. Scare stories of terrorism travel
fast and inflame the mind.
As I wrote in the first edition of Futurewise, Tribalism
feeds terrorism. Tribalism is the most powerful force on earth,
more powerful than all the atomic bombs on earth, the US, Russian
and Chinese armies combined. What happened at the World Trade
Towers is unfortunately only one expression of a wider and deeper
tribalism which will continue to impact the lives of billions of
people over the next twenty years.
The roots of terrorism were sown
long in the past and the branches will dominate our future.
Tribalism is intimately connected with terrorism:
when one mass of people identify only with themselves and their
values, and see others as lesser beings, then the ground is set
for permanent conflict.
Most wars for the last twenty years have been wars inside
nations rather than between them: wars over culture and ideology,
conflicts that affect tribal groups and loyalties rather than national
boundaries and identity, where one or both sides often resort to
terrorism. Expect that pattern to continue regardless of the
response the US and other countries make to recent events, and the
inevitable counter-reactions that are provoked.
The lesson of history shows that
counter terrorism requires more than military action and intelligence
gathering.
It's incorrect to say that Islamic Fundamentalism is
the root of the global terrorism threat. The truth is that
the forces and causes of terrorism are far more diverse. The fact
is that there are hundreds of small to large groups today who use
random attacks on civilian and commercial targets as a means of
getting attention and winning support (they hope). Take the
patterns of terrorism in Chechnya, Kosovo, Bosnia, Northern Ireland,
the Basque separatists and more recent rioting in anti-globalisation
protests. It's just the start.
If terrorism thrives on tribalism, then a sense of injustice
is what feeds tribalism. When a group feels they are marginalised,
their power destroyed, their people victimised, their voices unheard,
then violent protests are sure to follow.
The trouble is that there has never been a time in human
history when so many millions have felt "just" grievances.
One such issue is the growing gulf between the rich and the poor,
the destitute and the power-players. Another is the claim
by the United Nations that sanctions against Iraq have resulted
in the deaths of over 500,000 children. Another is the desperate
situation of millions of near-starving people in Africa and Asia
who see their super-rich global villagers on CNN every day.
Attacks and raids on the Taliban in Afghanistan, biological
warfare retaliation by terrorists (anthrax at first) that may or
may not be associated with Osama Bin Laden, other terrorist acts
- it is easy to set up a cycle of low grade conflict as we have
seen in many parts of the world. These cycles of terrorism can fuel
acts of violence for generations and are difficult to stop.
The new world order will have to address all these fundamental
global challenges, as well as issues of security.
In the meantime, expect ethics and values to become
ever more important to every company, large corporation, organization,
politician and people group.
Never has it been more important for the whole of humanity
together to agree how we can build a better kind of world.
The Truth about the Iraq
War
Why the War with Iraq is a sign of a new world order and what it
all means for the future of the Middle East, America, Europe, United
Nations and the coalition against terror
80 videos
on range of issues Main list of articles
and indexes
Germ warfare and terrorism
Recent book on terrorism threat
Biological warfare
Biological warfare video and chemical warfare
video
Dirty bombs - risk from
low grade nuclear devices and terrorism
Biological weapons of
mass destruction - Iraq ,
Anthrax video
/ smallpox video,
,
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