Last night, madmen (I assume they were all men...) gunned down close to 130 people in downtown Paris. People out enjoying Friday night at a restaurant, at a theatre, and in a nearby football stadium were suddenly thrown into a frenzy of bloodshed and fear. The city locked down, a state of emergency was declared, police and the armed forces were mobilised. The French president vowed to be ruthless against the perpetrators, who it seems clear are Islamic State ISIS. The Eiffel Tower turned off its lights, elsewhere monuments around the world light up in the French tricolore in solidarity with the tragic and senseless loss of lives. A few days earlier, and not much reported or covered, Lebanon suffered a bomb attack that claimed close to two hundred lives. ISIS again claimed responsibility.
What drives people to hurt and maime people on such a wide scale (or even at all)? How twisted and sick one must be to engage in such acts of violence against people you do not know and only interact with, perhaps just a glance of the fear in their eyes, perhaps in just hearing their scream of fear, before their death which you prematurely caused?
Terrorism is sick, and extremist violence aimed to terrorise and kill is mad. The victims in Paris, Lebanon, and throughout history, and in the future to come, deserve nothing less than our sympathy and solidarity. But what is the response to such acts of terrorism? How do you defeat or even engage in an enemy you cannot see, that has no addrress and no clear cut structure?
What is the world becoming ?
We mourn the loss of innocence and for the victims of terrorism. I silently whisper "no more, no more..."
