It’s
sad that I need to open this with a disclaimer, but unfortunately we
seem to have lost the art of nuance in discourse; that being said, I
am in no way condoning what happened in Manchester. If
by the end of the piece you fail to see that, then I have failed in
conveying my message, or you’re thick as fuck.(I’m also open to
the idea that they may not be mutually exclusive categories)
I’ve
tried to avoid adding another ‘Manchester hot take’ to the pile,
but after catching a couple of quotes from an article in the DailyMirror, I couldn’t help myself. The piece in question was an
incredibly brief bit on the motivations of the recent Manchester
bombing as told by Jomana Abedi, the suicide bomber’s sister.
Ms.
Abedi’s described her brother as ‘kind’ and ‘loving’,
descriptors not taken well by Mark Session who dismissed the
comments, claiming there was no place for them. It’s not an easy
thing to hear those gentle labels attached to someone many see as a
monster, it’s incongruous; how can someone capable of such evil be
described in such a complimentary way? The reality is we have a
simple ‘good versus evil’ narrative, with everyone the hero of
their own story. While the suicide bomber’s final act was one of a
malevolence unfortunately becoming all too common, we need to
remember that before the bomber, there was a boy – a brother and
son, one who doubt expressed the same love and devotion to his
family, that we do ours.
There
was also offence at the suggestion the attack was carried as
retribution for the children killed in Allied air strikes. While
Session claims there is no justification for the taking of a child’s
life, the entire quote makes it clear that while it may not be
justified, it’s different for Allied air strikes, because those
kids weren’t purposefully targated. It’s the curse of the
simplistic narrative striking again – look guys, there’s no
justification for targeting children, I know we’ve maybe hit one or
two in our air strikes, but we’re trying to wipe out ISIS.
So...maybe cut us some slack? You should just accept that we might
accidentally kill a kid or two, but that’s no reason to retaliate,
it not like we done it on purpose! We’re bombing for peace in the
Middle East!
To
outright dismiss Jomana Abedi’s comments regarding her brother is
irresponsible and myopic, if we continue to accept the same simple
narrative we’re going to go round in ever exploding circles. We
need to understand the motivations of those who carry out such
barbaric acts if we are to ever have any hope of changing the course
of future retaliation. We must also accept, as we were warned, our
actions in the Middle East would have repercussions. We are reaping
what was sown. Responding with more violence only plays into the
hands of ISIS recruiters; the sight of civilians, especially
children, getting caught in the crossfire is one of the key tools
used to recruit potential violent and suicidal extremists, you don’t
wake up one day and suddenly decide you want to blow yourself up,
monsters aren’t born, they’re made -and we need to stop shipping
the materials required.
If
we escalate our actions in response to what has happened we can
expect more of same, if we go down the route of internment, we can
expect the same. It’s easy to call for internment when you know you
have no fear of being detained, (i.e. you’re not Muslim), but it
doesn’t work. It’s a sticking plaster solution, it hasn’t
worked in the past, and it won’t work now; the injustice suffered
by those innocently interned will only drive more recruits into the
arms of the enemy.
Our
‘War on Terror’ isn’t working, you can’t fight an abstract
concept, or at least, you can’t bomb it out of existence - and if
we continue air strikes which kill innocent civilians, we will only
move further towards more attacks on home soil. Violence only begets
more violence, it’s a never ending downward spiral, there are no
exceptions to the rule – the particulars may be different, but the
generalities are the same. We need a new plan.
“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster...”
- Nietzsche
No comments:
Post a Comment