Blessings of Terrorism—Finding its Hidden Treasures underneath the Rubles

On September 11, 2001 which 10th anniversary ceremonies have just been rounded up with a gush of patriotism in the United States and with the opening of its grand Memorial to the public in New York City, Al-Qaida terrorists led by demised terror mastermind, Sheik Osama Bin Laden, struck at the heart of the US military—the Pentagon, in Washington, DC, and also at the heart of American capitalism—the World Trade Center, otherwise known as the Twin Towers standing right next to the world famous New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in relative geographic proximity. More than the NYSE the twin towers were the very symbols of American strength and economic prowess.

The multi-faceted aerial assaults were carried out serially, with at least, four hijacked commercial airplanes within the US airspace turned into missiles—two in New York, one in Washington, DC and the fourth and the last in Virginia.

The massive attacks which completely caught the US Air Force and security agencies off guard have gone down in history as the most devastating on US soil after Pearl Harbor by the Japanese at the beginning of WWII, claiming not just the twin towers and surrounding buildings, but close to 4,000 lives including those that perished in the downed airliner over the state of Virginia. The terrorist group, Al-Qaida, promptly claimed responsibility for the attacks setting off a chain reaction that continues to reverberate in far flung parts of the world till date.

It is, of course, needless to state, however, that the attacks quickly led to the summary sacking of the utterly distasteful and oppressive Taliban government in Afghanistan; continued manhunt for Al-Qaida operatives, and US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that seem to have no end in sight. Following the 9/11 attacks, similar terrorist attacks albeit of lesser magnitudes have popped up in India, Britain, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, and many more have been foiled in the US, Britain, and elsewhere throughout the world. A permanent state of alert has thus been imposed on these threatened nations.

The outpouring of grief during the 10th anniversary ceremonies by the relatives of the dead testifies to the pains that Americans still bear in their hearts that will never go away 10 years after the attacks. Children and wives lost their fathers and husbands. Unborn babies still in their mothers’ wombs who are now 10 years old since the attacks were given no chance of knowing their fathers and mothers killed in the attacks. The depths of mental anguish are indeed unfathomable. While the United States government has characteristically honored the victims of the attacks with a befitting memorial that may have somewhat attenuated the pains and anguish of the survivors and relatives of the victims, in addition to promptly and adequately meeting the medical and financial needs of their survivors, there is no gainsaying the fact that the pains and losses are unquantifiable and cannot be compensated for by any means human. Material compensation cannot bring back the dead and that is the cold reality that the relatives face daily.

How then could any blessings possibly come from such a cataclysmic event or any treasures be found underneath the rubles of terrorism? How could any good possibly come from such undiluted evil? Is it possible for evil to beget any good? Perhaps the question should not be put in such black and white terms. It could thus be reframed in a slightly different way like this: Is it possible to attain any desirable goals and objectives through the application of violence? Reframed in this way violence is no longer seen standing alone and judged alone all by itself but coupled with certain objectives or goals, whatever they might be. When decoupled from any goals and objectives, unattached, standing and judged alone all by itself, violence sounds so cold and horrible and totally bereft of any animating considerations or justifications. When coupled, however, we are immediately compelled to examine the goals and objectives of the violent methodology first before embarking on moral judgment and evaluation of the methodology itself for attaining the goals and objectives themselves—in this case, violence.

In this connection, therefore, we must recognize the fact that terrorism is a prescriptive methodology rooted in the philosophy of violence for the purpose of attaining widely differing political ends in particular countries. These political goals are as varied as the terrorist groups themselves applying the weapon whether we are concerned about Al-Qaida and the Talibans in Afghanistan, ETA in Spain, Sin Fein in Northern Ireland, Kashmir separatist groups in India, Boko Haram in Nigeria and many others in Russia and elsewhere around the globe. Violence is the weapon of choice for all these groups. In other words, it is a methodology that is dictated by a particular philosophical school as opposed to another. In this context, therefore, violence is no more than a political tool for the attainment of specific political goals and objectives. And the propriety or otherwise of its application depends on the nature of the specific goals and objectives connected to it.

The closest analogies to it are the anti-colonial and anti-slavery struggles of yesteryears. While certain schools preferred peaceful methods or doing away with colonial rule and slavery as the case may be, another school opted for a violent method of change. Both methods ran the gamut of these struggles. If we were to pose the question therefore whether the abolition of slavery and colonial rule could be attained through the application of violence there are many that would answer that question in the affirmative including citizens of the United States who had resorted to violence and fought the British to gain independence. There is little doubt, therefore, that in certain cases the application of violence can indeed attain the desired goals and objectives but only peaceful means had failed to bring about the ends in issue because sometimes it is the only viable means available especially where there is a violent pushback from the other side. A similar case can be made for those employing violence to free themselves from any form of unlawful or immoral physical restraints or bondage such as, for example, pro-democracy fighters groaning under the yokes of tyrannical regimes.

Thus if the goals and objectives are adjudged right in the eyes of the global community in general or significant parts thereof, the application of violence in attaining those goals and objectives may be entirely justified where peaceful methods had failed or proved wholly ineffectual. Conversely, where the goals and objectives are adjudged as reprehensible to begin with, the application of violence in seeking to attain them makes it doubly worse and utterly condemnable by well meaning and reasonable peoples across the globe.

This would seem to be the general principle and therefore the litmus test to be applied to any and all kinds of struggles by any groups in all places and in all ages, regardless of ethnic, racial or geographic boundaries. Applying this test to terrorism, therefore, compels us to examine the objectives and goals of Al-Qaida and other Islamic terror groups in the Middle East, for it is in the examination of their goals and objectives that we are able to make the moral judgment as to the propriety or otherwise of the application of violence in attaining them. What then are the goals and objectives of Al-Qaida and other Islamic terrorist groups such as Boko Haram in Nigeria? And to what extent have the goals and objectives of terrorists been achieved by acts of terrorism? To put it more directly, how has terrorism helped Al-Qaida and other terror groups attain their political ends?

To answer this twin question we must first of all identify the goals and objectives of Al-Qaida. As publicly voiced out time and again by its principal operatives, the political goals and objectives of the terror groups is for western countries to quit Arab and Moslem lands altogether because they view these nations as introducing corruptive “immoral western” values into Islamic nations and thereby undermining their Islamic cultural values that are dear to their hearts and way of life.

It is interesting to note that this is the same grievance publicly voiced by the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria. What that means in effect, is that Al-Qaida, and indeed Boko Haram, is engaged in cultural warfare. Implicit in this is the notion or fear that the west is bent on Christianizing Islamic nations by actively undermining Islam through western acculturation of Islamic populations. This is viewed as neo-colonialism of sorts, cultural colonialism, that is.

This being the case at least in their estimation and imagination, the goals and objectives of Al-Qaida would necessarily entail the expulsion of western presence in Arab nations by any means necessary from Arab lands. However these goals and objectives must be subjected to moral evaluation. Is it morally right to seek to seek to protect the cultural values of a particular civilization from outside contamination? There is no clear cut answer to this question but suffice it to state that no civilization is an island unto itself and all cultures and civilizations benefit from contacts with other civilizations and cultures. Therefore attempts to erect walls around a certain civilization and culture is a wild goose chase and therefore undesirable to begin with. In a multi-cultural and interconnected world as we live in the 20th and 21st centuries with global mass media and the internet permeating every nook and cranny of the global community, it is desirable and indeed impossible to wall off Arab nations from western influences any more than the west could be walled off from Islamic influences? There are more Moslems carrying and living their cultures in western nations than there are westerners doing the same in Moslem countries. Britain, Spain and the US are brimming with Moslems who are living their fate and cultures in these countries and no one has sought to expel them from these countries on the grounds of contaminating western values. If western nations were to retaliate, the millions of Moslems in western countries would be in dire straits and there would be uproar from the Arab world including, the terrorists themselves. So why do to others what they wouldn’t want others do unto them?

That is the moral question that must continue to dog the path of terrorist groups particularly of the Islamic genre. Besides that, how are Islamic nations supposed to be walled off from western influences when the very peoples of those nations are yearning for democracy as seen in their political uprisings and clutching laptops, blackberries, i-phones and i-pads, and active on social media such as Twitter and Facebook on the internet, including the terrorists themselves who maintain websites? Are these not materials of western civilization? Are their hospitals not bristling with life-saving machines and equipment sourced from the west including treatment procedures? Would terrorists refuse treatment in those hospitals because the equipment and treatment procedures are western rather than Islamic? Would they refuse to ride in automobiles or fly in airplanes built in and imported from the west? Just what are they talking about here? It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and more a product of delusion than of any rational thought process. How are they supposed to be cut off western influences when they are enjoying the fruits of western science and technologies, including the terrorists themselves many of whom schooled in the same west? If that is not hypocritical I don’t know what is. The moral evaluation of the goals and objectives of the Islamic terror groups therefore, leaves a sour taste in the mouth for the above stated reasons.

This must however not be read to mean that those who are opposed to western way life do not have genuine concerns. Of course they do just as there are westerners who harbor great concerns about Islamic way of life and would do everything to keep it from “infecting” western societies as every society strives to hold on to its cultural values in the face of other cultural influences that are considered morally injurious to the native recipient culture. This is why the struggle has been described as the “clash of cultures.”

Even so no one has the right to employ violence in pushing back an invasive culture. The protection of Islamic cultures cannot and should not be accomplished through resort to violence. There are a million and one ways of doing so without the senseless bloodletting. Ordinarily there is nothing wrong with anyone fighting to safeguard his traditional cultural values but there is everything wrong in deploying extreme violence by blowing up buildings and killing innocent people to attain that goal. In other words, the problem is with the methodology being employed by those who feel strongly about the adulteration or contamination of their cultural values.

And the irony of it is that this violent methodology has roundly proved to be counterproductive and therefore utterly incapable of attaining the objectives of the terrorists. If anything it has only succeeded in inviting more of the things it had set out to undo and expel from Arab lands. Thus if Al-Qaida wanted no Americans or Europeans in Arab soil, there are more Americans and Europeans in Arab soil today than there had ever been in history which the military occupation has brought about. If Al-Qaida wanted nothing to do with western education, there is more western education in Arab nations today than there has ever been in history, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan where the US is building schools. With Americans and other European NATO countries building roads, schools and hospitals in these countries, Al-Qaida and the Talibans have ended up getting more of what they consider loathsome and had not bargained for—i.e., more westernization of the Moslem world. The final seal on this is the western-style constitutional democracy now imposed on these nations by the US and NATO, not to mention the military occupation of these countries by NATO. And this western style-democracy will take root and produce western minded Moslems and be protected and defended by the US and NATO, if need be, by military force for as long as it takes. And that bodes permanent military occupation of these countries by the west with all the western influences that necessarily come with that.

The bottom line, therefore, is that the professed goals and objectives of Al-Qaida and the Talibans have been completely defeated even in its own backyards. And when we factor in the fact that Al-Qaida and Moslems in general have lost far greater number of lives and properties than the Americans and the Europeans they want to expel from Arab land through terrorism, it is fair to state that terrorism has not been worth its while, while it lasts and will never be. Bin Laden is gone, fed to the sharks in the Arabian Sea. Thousands of both senior and rank and file Al-Qaida operatives have been robbed off the face of the earth through drone attacks and combat operations by the US and NATO forces. Hundreds of thousands of Moslems have been killed and billions worth of properties have been destroyed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the war against terror. So much suffering has been inflicted on Moslems in those nations and Moslems around the globe bear the indignities of being viewed as terror suspects wherever they go.

At a point the question has to be asked by reasonable people, including the terrorist themselves: What did they die or suffer for? Some might answer this by saying they died for or suffered to free their lands from US and western domination. Well if so, they have died in vain because the US and western nations have only been handed a solid reason to occupy those very Arab lands in perpetuity, if you like, and introduce the very same western values so hated and despised by Al-Qaida and the Talibans to those countries. Thus, for instance, if women were not allowed to go to school in those countries, they will do so now. If they were not allowed to vote and be voted for in those countries, they will be allowed now. If they were not allowed to drive cars in those countries, they will do so now. And all the other trappings of western civilization will be introduced and entrenched in those countries undermining Al-Qaida and Taliban cherished Islamic values. No thanks to terrorism. Thus the more these terrorist groups seek to use violence to attain their political objectives the more they get of the very things they hate and want to do away with. Terrorism is attracting and producing the very opposites of their political goals and objectives.

And as it is with Al-Qaida so it is necessarily with each and every terror group in the world, and Boko Haram in Nigeria will not be any different in the end. Its entire leadership will be decimated with time and the group itself will become history like others before it without attaining an iota of its objectives.

There is nowhere in the world where terrorism has won. Yes, it could make a splash and seize the media headlines for a few days or even months or years with spectacular attacks and the likes, but that’s about all the glory, if you like, that it can ever hope to attain—its core objectives will ever remain a mirage and unattainable, precisely for the reasons stated above. This cold reality should advise better strategies for the protection of cultural values of Islamic nations that seem to be the bone of contention by terror groups in the Arab world because violence is entirely counterproductive and ultimately destructive of Arab lands. Arab thinkers should step up to the plate to counter the ideology of violence imposed on their nations by terror groups.

On the other hand terrorism has had the opposite effects in the countries targeted by terrorists. Wherever terrorists have struck, whether it is US, India, Spain, Britain, Saudi Arabia, and yes Nigeria, hopefully, it has helped to strengthen the security and public safety profiles of those nations well beyond their pre-terrorism levels. As a matter of fact, it has proved to be a bonanza for the public safety and security industries. In the US, for example, a completely new state department, styled Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was born. Nothing of the sort was in existence prior to 9/11. Its massive new headquarters building under construction will dwarf that of the CIA and even the Pentagon in Washington DC. And in New York City, a new, better and bigger World Trade Center is rising up and inching its way into the city’s skyline and set to dominate its environment once again. 9/11 Memorials are sprouting up and helping to bring Americans even closer together than before. New arrays of public safety and security technologies are popping out from the labs and production lines at dizzying pace, thereby helping to elevate the public safety and security fields into highly sought after careers. Security and public safety experts are now hot cakes just as information technology experts were a few decades ago. Public safety and security have never been more relevant in the overall scheme of national development than now. Hundreds, if not thousands of security related companies are in the game of public safety and security churning out new products and systems in the US. It can’t get any better than this.

The net results is that more and more nations are paying more attention to this field and reaping the benefits of public safety and security with better access control mechanisms, surveillance systems, and generalized intelligence gathering and analysis. This has led to a significant reduction in terrorist attacks globally. Take the United States, for example, better public safety and security measures have led to zero attacks in 10 years since 9/11 even though terrorists have not been any less active in plotting attacks targeting the US.

The same can be said for the other countries like Britain, India and Saudi Arabia, for example. And it can only get better not worse so long as the concerned nations do not rest on their oars, but continue to improve on their counter terrorism efforts. Terrorism could endure but for only a season. These nations have never been more secure than they are today in terms of their public safety and security awareness and preparedness. And these counter terrorism measures go beyond pure terrorism to even natural disasters and common crimes and emergency situations. Hospitals are primed for terrorism as well as natural disaster responses by first responders as well as upgrades of communication and logistical support facilities across the board at all levels of government in all towns and cities across the US.

All of these have spawned huge industries and touching on several adjacencies. Thus while the lives lost cannot be brought back, at the same time, it is impossible to resist the conclusion that terrorism has, in an ironic way, brought huge blessings to those nations that suffered it. Oh yes, there are hidden treasures underneath the rubles of terrorism waiting to the tapped by countries like Nigeria that can prospect for them. When it is realized that it was the WWII that catapulted the United States and the Soviet Union into becoming global superpowers it is not difficult to see why terrorism is having the similar effects in those countries affected by it. It will make them become global superpowers in Public Safety and Security, but again, only for those who see the opportunities presented by the terrorism and exploit them to the hilt as the US, Britain and India have done. And Nigeria will not be an exception, no matter how tardy and clueless Nigerian government and businesses might be in responding to these vast opportunities.

And even as many were grieving the loss of their loved ones during the 9/11 10th anniversary ceremonies, the one constant refrain in their mouths and in the mouths of public officials who delivered speeches is that those who died made the “ultimate sacrifices” to make the US stronger and better. Unlike the terrorists who are dying in vain dishonorably, the victims of terrorism have not died in vain. They have been honored in memorials and eulogies and their countries made stronger and more secure in the end. Their blood has purchased a better and stronger America for Americans and indeed other nations under terrorist shadows. Those are the hidden blessings of terrorism. Yea these are its hidden treasures. And that’s why terrorism is such an all round loser. It is a self-defeatist gambit.

Franklin Otorofani is an attorney and public affairs analyst