There is no question that terrorism gets a lot of attention these days. Nary a day goes by without a story of an attack somewhere in the world. Most – not all, but most – of these attacks are carried out by some individual, some small group or even a large bunch with some tie […]
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Why does Islamic State hate us?
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks one of the most often asked questions amongst Americans (and many others) was: why? Why were we attacked? Why did so many innocent people have to die? Why did we deserve such a catastrophe? Why do they HATE us? The answers to those questions were spread all over […]
We expect a lot of those agencies tasked with keeping us safe. We demand that they identify those who mean us harm, investigate the nature of the threat they pose and take appropriate action to disrupt their criminal acts. When they fail to do so many are critical and want to know why they were […]
Media have one important job to do: report the news. Sometimes they also bring in people to help us understand the news and speculate on what it means. At times outside experts contribute much needed analysis and insight and at others provide little of value to the issue at hand. In reporting the news there […]
Another attack has hit France – this one is particularly heinous, the murder of an 85-year old priest – and the critics are out in full force, all of whom know what is wrong with France and what the French should do about it. I certainly would not want to be French President Hollande or […]
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Terrorism and the fear factor
It has been an awful few weeks. Terrorist attacks in Munich, Ansbach, Nice, Kabul, Baghdad…and those are just the major ones. Thousands killed and wounded. In what is more frightening to many, the tools of the terrorist have evolved from guns and bombs to knives, axes and even a truck. The banal has become […]
In 1996 then First Lady Hillary Clinton published a book It Takes a Village which was essentially a tome on how to raise children. The main argument centred on the responsibilities that everyone has to contribute to the shaping of productive, well-adjusted citizens and was a bit of a call to an earlier age where this […]
Although most countries cannot agree on what constitutes terrorism, if we judge by the number of definitions that are out there, they do seem to do a better job at determining what a terrorist group is. There are so-called terrorist listings in the US, the UN, the EU, and the UK among other jurisdictions. We […]
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The perils of “instant analysis”
Today (July 22) marks the fifth anniversary of one of the darkest days in Norway’s history. Anders Behring Breivik set off bombs outside a government complex in Oslo, killing 8, then traveled to an island called Utoya where a young person’s political function was occurring and massacred 69 people. Today also marks the fifth anniversary […]
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No terrorist is an island
Another terrorist attack another claim that a – pick one – mentally ill/alienated/uneducated/inherently violent/disenfranchised young man “self-radicalised” and went on to commit a terrorist act. The case this time is the axe attack on a train in Germany by an Afghan (or Pakistani – the information on this is not yet clear) immigrant. German officials […]