It seems painfully obvious that if the author had a “recipe”
to successfully confront one of the big dramas of our time,
terrorism, he would be looking at a career in the UN or some
even higher place. But as a simple exercise there are some
things that can be said about this problem and how to tackle
it.
First of all, it needs to be clear what´s not the way to
fight terrorism. It should be perfectly evident for us
journalists that ignore the problem, try not to cover it in
a professional way, or simply be compliant to the interest
of states, governments, and hysteria expressed in social
media, by giving to the problem a status of less relevance
that it really has, it´s not a solution. It has to be clear
that our job, as ugly as it might seem, is to inform the
society about the reality that is lurking out there, so they
can have the tools to take action, to protect themselves,
and to demand solutions to the people in charge of those
issues.
That doesn´t mean we should be sensationalist or gruesome in
the way we cover this issue, nor that we should be a tool of
the terrorists that helps them replicate their message. But
the job of a journalist is to tell the truth as he sees it,
and truth can sometimes take very ugly forms and shapes.
The same thing could be said of the society in general. It´s
not a good answer to terrorism to try to ignore the problem,
or to look at scapegoats through which to canalize our fear,
and rage. But the same can be said about responses that
appeal to some extreme forms of sensibility or “kindness”,
which only encourage the terrorists, ratifying some
positions that claim that part of the western society has
succumbed to the hedonism and comfort, and it´s an easy pray
for someone with enough courage and will to confront it.
There are some successful histories of societies defeating
terrorism. Specially in South America. I can think
particularly of the cases of Peru with Shining Path, or
Colombia with the narco groups and left wing extremists like
the FARC or the ELN. In both situations the key was to
empower local communities, and make them partners with the
states and governments so that they could become part of the
fight.
One thing has to be clear. Terrorism is a security problem,
and it should be fought with security forces. But without
the complete support of the communities in which terrorist
groups recruit their forces and hide their people, that
fight is impossible.
At last, there has to be a strict respect for the values and
conceptions for which the people fighting terrorists are as
a matter of fact fighting. Again, Latin America was in many
cases a terrible example of security forces applying the
same methods that the terrorists in order to get a military
victory. In the majority of the situations that only led to
terribile human rights violations and to the alienation of
the civil population which was supposed to be defended.
In the long run history has showed that it´s better to take
more time and even to suffer some defeats, than to lose the
moral grounds in whose defense the people fighting terrorism
started from the beginning.
So true. Counter-terrorism fight is a long run which needs public support.