The Michigan Daily - Monday, July 11, 2005 - 5
VIEWPOINT
Terror across the Atlantic
Too familiar
MARA GAY CMNE
_i
BY ALEX DZIADOSz
LONDON -
aving been born and raised in
Michigan, it is safe to say that
I have felt somewhat sheltered
from the threat of terrorism all my
life. The Oklahoma City bombings
are a distant and detached memory
of my elementary school days. Even
after visiting Ground Zero after Sept.
11, the thought of terrorism has never
struck me as anything immediate. It
was something that I would only see
n television or in newspapers; some-
thing documented and then consumed,
never experienced.
On Thursday, Jul. 7, that seemed
to change. My class at the University
of London was uniquely situated in
regard to the attacks. Just two blocks
o the north lies King's Cross, the
ight of the worst bombing, and two
blocks south, Russell Square, where
bodies still remain.
And, of course, the iconic double-
decker bus with its roof ripped open
like a can of tuna, and its image pro-
jected over every major news source
for the past few days. To say the least
it was strange.
Our class continued as normal even
after the sound of explosions echoed
through the halls of our dorms, and
our lecturer droned on in the same
matter-of-fact tone that he might have
otherwise.
Despite the police tape that liter-
ally fenced us in, people wandered the
streets in much the same way - only
the pubs were noticeably more full.
By nightfall, it was hard to tell what
was exactly, but something swirled
in the air that was distinctly British.
Perhaps it was the memory of the
JOEL W IGTON -IP BETsI
IRA bombings that stretched through
the 1980s, or perhaps it was the fact
that the country has seen destruction
on every level over dozens of centu-
ries, but there was a feeling of accep-
tance in the eyes and words of those .
on the street.
There seemed to be a particular
sterility of emotion through the pop-.
ulace as a whole. This was evidenced '.~
by the fact that at nearly every site of
a major disaster - and at the major- sion screen again,
ity of memorials - reporters out- terrible day almost
numbered civilian spectators nearly unmistakable. I rer
10 to one. of that morning -
Within literally a few hours, the missing posters an
buses were running again, and a num- the dinner table -
ber of tube lines had opened - with out to the city acros
what appeared to be a minimal amount It must of cours
of security. I have seen only one gun Michigan, New Yo
on a police officer since being here. developed somewh,
It is difficult to decide whether I fornian out-of-state
should feel admiration or shock at sidered good peop
what appears to be a general accep- seem to be some k
tance among the English of the modity. Even some
recent events. When I hear that the complained of N
driver of the ill-fated number 30 bus guys think you're,
returned to work on Saturday, part of universe!"
me wants to shake the city, tell it to True, we are a b
pass a Patriot Act and lock down. But accents can be pai
another part thinks perhaps they have just as Prime Minis
the right idea. aged, condemned
Maybe the British have approached work at the historic
this issue in the only way they have Scotland last week
learned how, in the way that only the and brilliant efficie
Blitz during World War II and a seem- did not miss a bea
ingly ceaseless string of terror in the attacks. While som
1980s could show them. It seems that peers will undoub
Londoners have grown used to seeing thought in disgust,
their great city attacked, but most of thing valuable to t
all they are used to rebuilding it.
Dziadosz is a Michigan Daily staffpho- D ema
tographer who was studying in London
during last week's attacks. JESSE SINGA
NEW YORK -
n many, many
ways it was too
close for com-
fort. When London
was bombed last
week and the car-
nage of mangled
steel and blood-
covered bodies
invaded my televi-
the echoes of that
four years ago were
membered the chaos
the screams and the
d the empty seats at
and my heart went
ss the pond.
se be noted that at
rkers seem to have
at of a bad rap. Cali-
ers are usually con-
ple, and the Texans
ind of bizarre com-
of my friends have
ew Yorkers, "You
at the center of the
it arrogant, and our
nful. to the ear. But
ter Tony Blair man-
and continued his
c G-8 conference in
with steely resolve
ncy, New York City
t after the Sept. IIl
e of my midwestern
tedly scoff at this
the city has some-
each to the rest of
the country. Bloody but unbowed, New
Yorkers did things that, in the days and
weeks following Sept. 11, took great
courage - they went to work, took the
subways, spent eight-hour work days in
8-story sky-scrapers. Four years later
we remain the same, loud, bustling,
rude Gotham city.
Let me introduce you to the New
York I know and love.
True, there are national guards-
men armed with automatic weapons
in Grand Central Terminal. Signs
on the subway urge passengers who
"see something" to "say something."
And when you are below 14th Street
where the city's signature grid system
is nowhere to be found and the streets
seem to be placed as arbitrarily as a jig-
saw puzzle, there are no towers to help
you find your way.
But Times Square is still filled with
tourists whose necks remain perpetual-
ly arched toward the sky. We still go to
school, shop, pack into the subway cars
at rush hour like sardines in a can.
We felt the Sept. 11 attacks more
exquisitely than most. So naturally, the
great majority of us were infuriated
when the anguish and suffering of that
day was exploited for political gain. We
have rabidly refused to sacrifice our
freedoms in the name of a sense of secu-
rity we now know to be false and mis-
leading. And last November, New York
told the country that we do not believe
in a president who would use fear to
advance his right wing agenda.
Funny things start to happen when
people are afraid. Civil rights go for-
gotten in the name of security, citizens
with different-sounding names are
taken away in the middle of the night
and held without charges. And politi-
cal agendas are shoved down a nation's
throat just when its mouth is gaping in
shock in the aftermath of this bomb or
that plot foiled.
After the recent attacks in London,
security was increased on our public
transportation systems and there are
now two very big national guardsman
at the commuter station down the road.
They are currently guarding the safest
trash can in the state of New York. We
don't feel any safer here in New York.
Those same things that took courage
almost four years ago - riding the
subways and working in sky scrapers,
for example - continue to take cour-
age today, because we know just how
likely another attack really is.
In New York, and more recently in
London, the terrorists lost. And the
definition of terrorist is extended to
include anyone anywhere who uses
fear to take away innocent life or inher-
ent freedoms.
Tony Blair did a good thing when
he responded to last Thursday's terror
attacks in London with the expediency
and resolve that he did, Moving on in
that way, looking for justice instead of
vengeance, sends a message to every
kind of terrorist: we may be afraid. But
we will not act out of fear.
Gay is a member of the Daily's edito-
rial board. She can be reached at
maracl@umich.edu.
id-driven terrorism
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attacks on
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brought back into
play a very scary
realization for those
of us who live in or
around a major city:
There's no way to
guarantee our safe-
ty. If someone wants to hurt us, they can.
This isn't fatalistic pessimism, but rather a
matter of logistics; there simply is no way
to defend the myriad of soft targets found
in any metropolitan center.
One of the biggest questions at the
moment is just how bad this is going to
get. Would a subway attack on a major
Western city every year or two, as terrify-
ing as it sounds, be a best-case scenario at
this point? The other important question
- and one that was asked after Sept. 11
and quickly forgotten - is: Why do they
wantto hurt us? The short answer is "Lots
of reasons." What's important right now
is to not ignore this question; we simply
can't afford to continue traveling down the
road of "They want to kill us, so I don't
care why."
Those who say things like "They hate
us for our freedom" can retread tired lines
about their political opponents wanting
to give therapy to our enemies all they
want; they can make grandiose speeches
denouncing members of the "Blame
America First Club"; they can insist that
there really are only two classes of people
in the world, freedom-lovers (the good
guys) and freedom-haters (the bad guys).
All of this is quite comforting and sure to
win votes, but there are a couple of prob-
lems: It isn't true, and it doesn't work.
Terrorism, like drugs, is a demand-
driven phenomenon. The idea of cutting
off drugs at the source is doomed to fail-
ure no matter how many farmers' lives we
ruin through our defoliation campaigns. In
the same vein, the number and magnitude
of future terrorist attacks depend much
more on the reproductive capacity of the
ideologies that fuel such atrocities than
on any amount of diligence, intelligence
or military action on the part of the West.
We cannot cut off terrorism at the source;
we need to figure out why the "demand"
for actions targeting Western civilians is
so high.
It is a mistake to view Islamic terror-
ism as a monolithic force with a singu-
lar agenda; as is the case with any other
group of people, there are numerous,
often-competing factions that have differ-
ent goals in mind. We have two choices:
Ignore the intricacies inherent to contem-
porary terrorism and continue with the
narrow-minded, myopic policies that led
us to lump Saddam Hussein together with
Osama bin Laden; or try our best to gain
an understanding of the numerous terror-
ist groups that abound in the Middle East
and elsewhere, and surmise which ones
have realistic demands. For those groups
that adhere to an apocalyptic brand of
extremist Islam that calls for the deaths
of all Christians and Jews on earth, we
know that we won't be bargaining with
them any time soon, and our only choice
is to capture or kill them before they do
the same to us.
But as for other groups - those with
specific political or social demands - it's
time to rethink things. The catchphrase
"We don't negotiate with terrorists" has
been obviated by a world in which anyone
who can get their hands on 10 pounds of
explosives can easily kill dozens of sub-
way riders. It sounds ugly and it hurts, but
at some point we're going to have to nego-
tiate with those who are trying to kill us,
because as long as their ideologies attract
new adherents, we will be at risk. This isn't
a matter of political opinion or an attempt
to cast the United States in a bad light (as
anyone who's had access to newspapers
in the Arab world knows, bizarre rumors
and untrue conspiracy theories abound)
- it's a purely practical standpoint. They
can kill us if they want to, so it's time for
us to do our best to make them not want to
kill us anymore. Of course there should be
a huge focus on intelligence and security,
but to assume this is enough to keep us
safe is to destroy the poppy field without
treating the addicts back home. As long
as the demand is still there, poppy farm-
ers, like angry young men who hate the
United States, can simply move elsewhere
and start anew.
Singal can be reached at
jsingal@umich.edu.