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An Armed policeman is pictured after Manchester Arena bombing, in London, Britain, on May 23, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

I couldn't sleep a whole night after hearing about the suicide bombing in Manchester. Not because it was scary. The home country where I was born, gave me enough experience of terror attacks, but because a few of my students are from Manchester, and they were back in the break preparing for their final year examinations.

As is the rule, student sometimes go out at night to relax from the boring studies. That was making me sick inside. What if one of my students were caught in the attack? They are of the perfect age group to attend the pop concert that was targeted.

A concert by American singer Ariana Grande was targeted by a man, British born Muslim of Libyan descent, age 22, who triggered an explosive-laden belt full of nails. Try to think about that for a moment. When I was 22, I was mostly focused on watching football, studying to graduate with high honors, and going out with friends.

It wouldn't have crossed my mind, especially given my middle-class upbringing, to look into the darkest corners of internet, to focus on how to make a homemade bomb, with nails that will fly in all directions and kill as many people as possible in the cruelest way. And if I was showing signs of radicalization, my mother would have been the first to hand me to the police.

What depths of depravity can so corrupt a person that they will act in this way? What purpose does it serve? It is not a revolution for an ideology, which wants to create a more just society. It's just sheer murder and nothing can justify that.

Naturally there were reactions from both sides. Standard ultra-right wing ideologues were quickly on Twitter railing against immigration, even though the assumed terrorist was a man born and bred in the U.K. One even called for a final solution, before quickly deleting the tweet, understanding the meaning and implication those words might carry.

On the commentary side, there were the usual platitudes, talking of holding a vigil, of how "international terrorism" will never defeat us – the same old formula, with little discussion of policies that might stem the tide.

At the time of writing, there is a military operation underway in the U.K., where troops will now be stationed in major cities to patrol the threatened streets. First France, and now Britain, in what is a wordless admittance that Europe is not just facing lone wolf terrorism, but an actual insurgency.

Questions remain unanswered, however. Who or what is an international terrorism? How come there are terror attacks in some European megacities, and not others? Why is France, U.K., Germany and Belgium facing terrorism, but not Hungary, Austria, Poland or the Czech Republic? What causes this bizarre selective terrorism, and which policies have been tried and tested and failed?

As the public seethe with anger, the system goes into the same tested formulaic response, which is really inadequate. The biggest problem is that terrorism in Europe is dealt as if they are isolated incidents. Politicians have decided that their policies will continue, because politicians don't face these attacks, people do. People, are being treated as "collateral damage."

The people are naturally angry, and this is how rebellion starts. Unfortunately what no one seems to consider is the fact that what is happening in Europe is an insurgency. Naturally tactics of winning hearts and minds will never work. Rather, the classical tactics of dealing with an insurgency, with infiltrative surveillance, and active monitoring are necessary.

In Britain, both the Conservatives and Labour have gutted the nation's police forces. The primary duty of a state is to safeguard its own citizens. When the state fails, the mob is tempted to arm itself and take the law into its own hands. That's a recipe for anarchy.

As U.K. faces yet another test of national resolve, there are many questions that need answering if it, and, indeed, Europe as a whole, wants to survive as a cohesive entity that is.

Sumantra Maitra is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SumantraMaitra.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

 

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