Islamic terrorism is a tricky subject to talk about. If we only look at the numbers it’s clear terrorism is not an existential threat to the West. The Soviet Union during the Cold War had the capacity to destroy every Western city—that’s an existential threat. Nazi Germany and the global WWII—that was a true existential threat. Islamic terrorism is a chronic security threat. There is a crucial difference between the two.
However, to talk of Islamic terrorism only in these terms would be to minimize the biggest threat facing us today. All the platitudes of ‘Diversity is our strength’ and ‘Islam is peace’ don’t address the serious threat here. Of course every religion has its fanatics, but as a recent essay put it, no other religion has a global network committed to terrorism. And for those that would ignore this problem and its epicenter in the Middle East we must look only to Syria, whose violence has caused millions to seek safety in Europe putting enormous stress on our allies. How do we find the right balance in this fight?
I was reading Shadow Warriors, a book on Canadian Special Forces. One picture has stayed with me. Two Canadian Special Forces were kneeling over an injured Taliban fighter in Afghanistan. The Canadians were decked out in sophisticated technology, helmets and helmet cams, communication equipment, sleek black rifles—modern top of the line soldiers. Their fallen enemy had a beat up AK-47 rifle. He wore the simple cotton traditional Afghan garment that was worn and dirty. He had no shoes. No shoes.
This is the enemy that we are so afraid of? Men who live in caves and who have no shoes? The armies of Canada, the USA and Europe—all our allies—have the most formidable military this world has ever seen. In comparison, their Islamic radical opponents are poorly trained and equipped with small arms. In the event that they acquire larger munitions it’s doubtful they would have the capacity to use them effectively. Joby Warrick says as much in his Pulitzer Prize winning book, Black Flags: the Rise of ISIS. “The truth was that the Islamic State’s fighters were skilled butchers, but lousy soldiers.” He quoted an American soldier a veteran of many raids against insurgents in Iraq. “They’re only good at terrorizing people who aren’t armed. They think they’re good, but when we would wake them up in the middle of the night, they would crap their pants.”
The recent attacker in Berlin killed 12 people with a truck. He left his identification papers in the truck. These are amateurs, not professionals. Yes, there are Islamic radical militants who hate us and wish us harm and they are mad men. They have the capacity to carry out horrific attacks like the ones in Nice, Paris, Berlin and Istanbul. And they have the capacity to inspire this madness in others like the attacks in Ottawa, San Bernardino and Orlando. But they can’t hold a candle to our power.
Our intimate connection to the world through the Internet makes each attack visceral and personal. We experience every terrorist attack from the screens in the palms of our hand. Every human instinct tells us to hit them back with everything we’ve got. And we have the capacity to do that. Canada and our allies have the power to literally wipe the cities under the control of Islamic radicals off the map. Why don’t we do that? Because by now it should be obvious that a lasting solution goes beyond a military one.
Over the past 15 years the West has installed new regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq through two costly wars. President Obama favoured surgical strikes, which have killed Islamic insurgents with greater precision. We have been targeting and killing Islamic terrorists more and more effectively for close to two decades. Are we safer than we were 15 years ago? Few would argue that we are.
Every time we’ve killed a Zarqawi an al-Baghdadi springs up. This is because Islamic terrorism is a symptom of a deeper problem. If terrorists were the actual problem we could kill them and be over with it. But the chronic terrorist threat underscores that while this fight needs military power that alone is not enough. Canada and our allies wield enormous power. Projecting that power in a way that effectively meets this threat is the challenge for us.
Medicine Hat News. February 22, 2017.