Qamar Bashir
The New Year celebrations in the USA were marred by tragedy when a barbaric act of terrorism in New Orleans claimed the lives of at least 10 holidaymakers and injured 30 more. This heinous attack serves as a stark reminder that terrorism, driven by intolerant and extremist ideologies, can strike anywhere in the world and kill innocent citizens or individuals who, by any measure, had no connection to any conflict or issue that could justify such violence. There is no justification for such barbarity, regardless of the motive or alleged rationale.
The perpetrator, reportedly an American citizen of Middle Eastern descent, used a truck as a lethal weapon. The vehicle was allegedly displaying an ISIS flag, potentially signaling allegiance to the group’s hateful ideology, which may have been triggered by the killing of innocent Palestinians in Gaza. However, even if the attack was meant to avenge the killing of innocent citizens in Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Iran, or Ukraine, targeting innocent civilians elsewhere is devoid of logic or justification.
Killing innocent people, regardless of the motive—whether revenge or hatred—is unjustifiable. While this statement may seem simple and straightforward, humanity, unfortunately, is not. The complexities of ideology, emotion, and vengeance often cloud judgment, leading to actions that perpetuate cycles of violence and suffering.
In this state of clouded negativity, they abandon logic, ignore the universal message of peace promoted by almost every religion, and forget the lessons of peaceful coexistence taught in schools, mosques, synagogues, and churches. Instead, they succumb to the destructive influence of hatred and violence.
In this warped state of mind, they derive a twisted sense of pleasure and satisfaction from inflicting wounds, causing suffering, or even taking lives—targeting anyone they can..
It is deeply unfortunate that some societies and countries assume for themselves the authority to destroy nations, obliterate communities, demolish homes, and carry out drone strikes around the world—all without judicial oversight or accountability. Operating with a self-assumed license to kill, they often escape scrutiny or consequences for their actions.
Even more deplorable is the fact that those who make these decisions to use force and wreak havoc on countries, societies, and communities remain untouched and unaccountable. Meanwhile, innocent citizens—who played no role in these decisions and had no direct or indirect involvement in any acts of violence—become the victims of such kinetic actions.
Pakistan has been one of the worst victims of terrorism—domestic, regional, and international. Since the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan, the country has lost over 80,000 lives, including members of its security forces and countless innocent citizens. Even today, there is no respite, as acts of terrorism continue to claim lives almost daily, involving security forces, terrorists, separatists, and innocent civilians.
Unfortunately, the world will remain entangled in the grip of this multi-headed, deadly python until we fundamentally change our strategies and tactics for dealing with unfavorable regimes or governments. Without a shift in approach, the cycle of violence and suffering will persist, leaving nations wounded and societies fractured.
The use of non-state actors to achieve kinetic and political objectives—most notably during the effort to push back the USSR from Afghanistan—marked the inception of hateful, religiously tainted ideologies. The United States led the conceptualization and execution of this strategy, which involved spreading the lethal and poisonous ideology of “Islamic Jihad.” Muslims from across the globe were encouraged to join the fight against the “Russian infidels.”
To bolster this movement, sociological engineering was employed, including altering school curricula to emphasize the importance of Jihad and recruit fighters. Various militant outfits were created to serve as role models, with figures like Osama Bin Laden being elevated as heroes under a carefully crafted strategy. This approach proved immensely successful in repelling and ultimately dismantling the USSR.
However, the success of this model set a dangerous precedent. It was later employed to destabilize and destroy societies in Libya, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and beyond. These militant assets—equipped with weapons, fueled by ideology, and funded by seemingly unlimited resources—became forces intoxicated by power and violence. With unrestrained authority over their domains, these groups perpetuated conflict and sought new wars to sustain their insatiable appetite for chaos and terror.
The use of unconventional, unethical, and informal war tactics is perhaps the root cause of much of the pain and suffering endured by innocent people around the world—individuals who have no connection to acts of brutality or violence. These tactics have inflicted untold sorrow, tears, and anguish on innocent citizens in countries like France, the UK, the USA, Pakistan, and India. Thousands of lives have been shattered, leaving countless people with lifelong wounds—whether physical, emotional, or both—suffered by themselves or their loved ones.
While this may not be the sole cause, it is undoubtedly a significant factor among the many reasons behind these heinous and abhorrent acts of violence. Terrorism indiscriminately harms people of all religions—be it Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, or others. It takes the lives of individuals across racial lines—white, Black, Asian, or others—and targets people of all ethnicities, philosophies, and perspectives, without distinction or discrimination.
The global community must address this issue with urgency. At the national, regional, and international levels, laws and protocols should be established to prohibit the use of non-state actors as kinetic assets. Nations must desist from arming such groups with ideological and kinetic tools of destruction. The world must return to conventional and formal warfare, to be used only as a last resort in cases of extreme necessity or compulsion.
By ceasing the practice of empowering contractors or raising militant organizations to achieve strategic or ideological objectives, the international community could take a significant step toward preventing the indiscriminate killing of innocent people. This shift could help reduce the pain, agony, despair, and helplessness that so often plague innocent citizens across the globe.
