When terrorists strike, we fall back on the conventions.
Consolation to the bereaved, but what can you really say when 22 souls have been wiped out without meaning?
Anger at the perpetrators, but what can you do against anonymous suicide bombers prepared to die in order to kill?
Respect to the emergency services, who never flinch in the face of danger, but know they’re only heroes for a day. Tomorrow they'll be back to being plain old “public service workers”.
Ok – we respond with cliches, but that doesn't make them any less worth saying. Just because terrorism is now part of urban life, an unnatural hazard of globalisation, that doesn't mean we should lapse into cynicism or apathy.
There's work to do. Politics has gone on hold for the duration, but as with the death of the Labour MP, Jo Cox, all of us are required to address our prejudices and try to understand how antique ideologies of hate – white racism, Islamic terrorism – have emerged from the shadows and spread their viral cancer through new media.
The police and the security services will learn much from this bombing and will do everything in their power to track down the perpetrators.
But when the principal author of this atrocity is already among the dead this is of limited use.
You can't punish suicide bombers for their crime, though of course you can attack the network that supports them.
You have to attack their ideology at source: drain the swamp of delusion that cultivates suicide bombers.
Never accord these cruel idiots the dignity or respect of being addressed as enemies.
US President Donald Trump talks of “utterly destroying this evil ideology”, assuming that Islamic State is responsible for the Manchester bombing. But we should avoid the temptation to hurl a few more Moab bombs on the Middle East or ban Muslims at the borders.
Lethal force may of course be necessary, if it is possible to destroy the people who plan terrorist bombing attacks. But as we have seen in recent attacks – Bataclan in Paris, the Westminster knife attacker – it's not always easy to know who to kill. Very often it is individuals acting on their own initiative.
The Manchester bombing will no doubt lead to calls for immigration to be halted, as has been attempted chaotically in America, to exclude certain religious groups.
But since terrorists are as likely as not to be home grown, trying to assign collective blame in this way is counter productive. It simply confirms the terrorist in their delusion that there is a clash of civilisations between the Christian and Muslim worlds.
There isn't. Full stop.
So, while we fall back on cliches let’s also avoid simplistic solutions. We have to accept that there are small numbers of alienated groups mostly, but not exclusively, in the Middle East who seek to kill people here indiscriminately.
But the cowardice of their actions belies their impotence. People who attack teenagers at a pop concert scarcely deserve to be called terrorists, let alone fighters for a cause.
They are the evil product of peculiar circumstances and need to be dealt with, as we would dangerous beasts. But they can only succeed if we follow their script, over-react and retaliate in kind against minorities.
Manchester has united in defiance of this assault and that spirit confirms that these murderers have already failed.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel