A global war is being waged by Islamist terrorists. The world need not wait for this war to be declared. It has been going on since 9/11. The body count has been mounting since terrorists hijacked three US airliners and crashed two of them into the twin towers of the New York World Trade Center that reduced the iconic landmark into rubble.
Many thought it was only America that was the target of Islamist terrorists. Two Chechyan brothers exploded bombs at the finish line of the Boston marathon. Islamist gunmen also killed innocent civilians in San Bernardino in the US West Coast and a nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
London’s underground trains and street buses plying the city’s busy shopping area also came under attack.. Gunmen broke into the office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing two of its editors. This was followed by the coordinated attacks on a café-lined street of Paris. The latest carnage was in Nice on Bastille Day when a Tunisian ploughed a trash truck into a crowd that left 84 people dead, including women and 10 children. It was the third major terror attack on French soil in 18 months.
Germany which accepted hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants from strife-torn Syria and Iraq was shocked when IS terrorists indiscriminately fired guns and detonated explosives in a movie house outside Frankfurt. Hosting the migrants and giving them safe haven was no guarantee the country would be immune from terrorists who mixed with the tide of migrants that flooded Europe.
Brussels’ Zavantem airport was also rocked by explosives set off by IS extremists. Istanbul in Turkey, a Muslim nation, was not spared by the terrorists.
The United Nations has not taken a strong stand against global terrorism except to issue statements condemning its brutal acts against humanity. Perhaps it’s time to put boots on the ground with troops of countries struck by IS.The world might yet see a coalition force composed of troops from the US, Britain. France. Germany, Belgium and Turkey which is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member but not of the European Union which it had wanted to join. Turkey is currently in the throes of a military coup and it’s unclear where this staunch ally of the West is veering. There are concerns the country might go to the far end of Islam, although Turkish President Erdogan has the support of the people who are protesting the military’s takeover attempt which resulted in 161 dead and more than 2,000 wounded.
Drones and air strikes by American, British and French warplanes on IS strongholds in Syria and Iraq don’t seem enough to wipe out the Islamist terrorists. IS instead has stepped up its attacks to show that no place and no one is safe from its reach.
Nice, the playground of the rich and famous and home of the Cannes film festival, was full of revelers on the city’s promenade to celebrate the Fall of the Bastille on July 14.The celebration instead turned into a night of terror. Tourists and families with their children had just watched the fireworks when a huge lorry came careening down the main avenue with the driver firing a gun at people. Bent on a killing rampage, he then rammed the truck against a crowd huddled on the sidewalk.
The scene that followed was one of death and destruction with the lone assassin, a Tunisian, finally shot dead by French police.
Where in the world is the next target of the Islamist terrorists? Only these cunning and cold-blooded killers know.
There are unconfirmed reports IS has gained a foothold in Mindanao and linked up with the kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf Group. There are pictures of ASG waving the ISIS banner, but it could just be a ploy to strike terror among the villagers and government soldiers pursuing them. The AFP insists there’s no proof IS is already operating in our backyard in Mindanao. Still, IS could just be waiting for the right time to pull off an attack— even in Metro Manila.
These are trying times for the country. We are facing an armed conflict in our southern backdoor from Muslim secessionists and the notorious ASG and MILF and an external threat from an aggressive China in the West Philippine Sea.
Yet there are some elements in our society that look at the US as an interloper instead of a deterrent against the perils facing the country.