Terror-go-rounder

By Author: Arthur Zulu
Total Articles: 48
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Oxygen and terror. Rarely do sentences contain such oddities. Except they were written with blue pencils. But wait a moment. Few things have stimulated interest in this world as those strange bed fellows. Yet it appears that we have more mismatches these days than compatibles. (Like America and France in G-8.)

Now consider the similarity between oxygen and terror.

First, they have provided an endless field of study and research for the brains. A study of oxygen will take you to oxides, combustion, oxidation, acidation, respiration, and organic matter at elementary level; and climatology, mineralogy, metallurgy, oceanography, military warfare, sub-marine technology, and astronomy at advanced level. (Is there water in Pluto?)

When you begin a study of terror, you will need to know about bio-terrorism, nuclear terrorism, agro-terrorism, eco-terrorism, cyber-terrorism, chemical terrorism, and radiological terrorism. But this is a beginner's class.

For dissertation, you have to find out the secret of making, deploying, and detonating a nuke; financing and movement of terrorist ...
... funds; decoding terrorist signals; how to plan and execute a successful attack; turning crude weapons to killer giants; identifying and catching a terrorist; how to fool security men; survival in caves and caverns; and the best way to stop terrorism. (Is it not by sacking sovereign states?)

The next common thing about them is their superabundance. Oxygen, the most abundant of all elements, gives life to all living things and combines with other elements to make life possible on this earth. No wonder it is called vital air. (Priestly who isolated it named it dephlogisticated air.)

Terror, however, is present in another way. It destroys all living and non-living things. (They call it the beast.) The contrast then is that while one dephlogisticates—relieves inflammation—the other causes it. While oxygen means life, terror means death. Here the confluence and divergence between them end.

Because terror is now playing Bermuda Triangle (from Bermuda, a group of islands in the North Atlantic). It is said that any ship or airplane that passes by the deadly triangle disappears without trace.

But, today, airplanes and ships, and their human passengers, are vanishing in unsuspected spots, giving rise to the rumor that the triangle is shifting position with the rotation of the earth and the movement of the continental shelves. Already, twelve magnetic places around the world, including the North and the South Pole, are fingered as danger zones, so that none is safe anymore. You and your fishing boat can vanish for aye in the middle of your innocent country river.

Similarly, terror has been moving insidiously—from the Middle-East to South East Asia, on to East Africa, then to America, and now in Western Europe. And each time it strikes, the cyclical pattern is apparent—multiple simultaneous attacks at the back of security men.

After 9/11, they did it again in the Queen's kingdom—Great Britain—four separate attacks in London in the middle of G-8 meeting. And Scotland Yard anti-terrorist squad—beaten round and silly in their game at home—was, for once, consigned to a state of stupefaction—and pupilage.

We are once more repeating the old pattern—random condemnation, and a pledge to pulverize al-Qaida to smithereens like atoms. Or like those finer particles from which the universe was made after the Big Bang.

In an article I wrote in 2004 titled, Intelligence Failure and the Next Armageddon, I had said:

As you read this, intelligence officers are working at full trot briefing heads of states about the next move of terrorists and last minute plans to checkmate their move. But no one is asking the right questions: Why is the world in turmoil? Why do we need intelligence? Why would a virgin decide to bomb herself to death? What would make some people decide to end civilization by a chemical bomb? What can be done to bring lasting peace to the world?

It is my belief that if we do not get the right answers to these questions, the world will not have peace. Terrorist attacks have continued unabated—defying intelligence—and will ever continue. (See what's happening in Spain. NEXT STOP GREAT BRITAIN.)

All lovers of peace would wish that the world leaders gave attention to the real causes of terrorism. Otherwise, we might wake up tomorrow and find the world on fire on the day of ‘Armageddon.' Do not blame the innocent oxymoron, intelligence failure. For we are all to blame. (Emphasis added.)

In his January 20, 2004 State of the Union address, George Bush said: "We are tracking al-Qaida around the world and nearly two-thirds of their known leaders have now been captured or killed. Thousands of very skilled and determined military personnel are on the manhunt, going after the remaining killers who hide in cities and caves—and, one by one, we will bring the terrorists to justice."

I had then written an article with the title, The 24 Fallacies of George Bush's State of the Union Address on Terrorism. In that article, I wrote:

It is true that most of the key terrorist suspects—including Saddam Hussein—have either been arrested or eliminated. But according to Time Magazine, ‘Lopping off the beast's head may not kill the body.' If Saddam or Osama bin Laden are hanged today, more Saddams and Osamas will rise tomorrow. Terrorists want attention. And that is why various groups are eager to claim credit for any attack—even though they are not responsible. In like manner there may be a lord of the flies waiting for Saddam and Osama to pass on before taking center stage and bringing his pursuers to ‘justice.'

I am beginning to think that we do not know who is pursuing whom. Neither do we know who the terrorists are. We have also no idea what is justice.

Like Macbeth, who does murther Sleepe, the innocent Sleepe, the terrorists and the world leaders have both murdered sleep, and we can't sleep anymore. And instead of a merry-go-rounder in a fair ground, we now have an unwelcome visitor that has come to stay, playing unfair games on unannounced grounds. His scary nom de plume? Terror-go-rounder!

ARTHUR ZULU is an editor, book reviewer, and the author of CHASING SHADOWS! and HOW TO WRITE A BEST-SELLER.
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About the Author ARTHUR ZULU is an editor, book reviewer, and the author of CHASING SHADOWS! and HOW TO WRITE A BEST-SELLER