Commentary - The Terrorism Problem Requires Courage & Moral Clarity

Posted on Tuesday, January 2, 2007

By David Cid, MIPT Deputy Director

The recent attack by the Basque separatist ETA at a Madrid airport and the continuing violence in the southern provinces of Thailand remind us that terrorism is a political as well as religious phenomenon.

Even Al Qaeda, though embracing radical Islam as justification, has a clear and well defined political agenda; re-establishing the Caliphate of Middle Eastern countries under Suria law and ultimately using this as a base of operations to expand Islam as the dominant religion and political system in the world.

Domestic terrorists are politically motivated as well, and the commonly accepted definition of terrorism, violence in furtherance of a political agenda, captures this reality.

Participative democracy, the anodyne to violent political action, is not helpful in terrorism prevention. The terrorist sees democracy at work and is unhappy with the outcome. So he picks up a gun.

The animating feature of modern terrorism is a rejection of participatory government in favor of intimidation, violence and indiscriminate mass murder.

The Spanish people were right to reject the notion of amnesty for ETA killers, even if by doing so the fight becomes more difficult in the short term. The same may be said for the Thais.

There are problems in the world that require nuance, subtlety and accommodation, but there are others, like terrorism, that require courage and moral clarity.

David Cid is MIPT's Deputy Director with expertise in intelligence gathering, terrorism investigations and counterterrorism. Cid writes in response to the Madrid car bomb carried out by ETA and the terrorist strike in Thailand over the 2007 New Year weekend.