The Real War on Terror

The Real War on Terror

It is normal that fear plays an important part in people’s political choices. This is not something new, and should not surprise us. However, fear usually leads to wrong political decisions, and we should try to avoid this. As in every aspect of life, to let fear dominate our choices is the fastest way to lose control. Since politics is all about control, losing it usually leads to very undesirable consequences. Every type of political system is defined by who has control of society. In a monarchy, the monarch controls the people. In a democracy, the people control the monarch, the president or the prime-minister. In an aristocracy, the people are controlled by a select group of aristocrats. In a dictatorship, the whole society is under the control of a dictator or of a number of dictators. Therefore, control is the key element in any political system. In order for a democracy to keep being a democracy, it is thus essential for the people to keep controlling their ruler or rulers. If the people lose the ability to control their rulers, then the rulers gain absolute control over the people, and democracy is replaced by a different system of government. Democracy means the rule by the people; if the people have no power, then democracy cannot persist.

However, sometimes people are tempted to renounce some of their power. Sometimes the people are even willing to relinquish the power they have over their rulers. Usually this happens when the people are afraid. The new millennium has been, so far, a millennium of fear. Many of us have been brought up watching the so called war on terror. After a decade of relative peace (the nineties) the west has been awaken by the events that occurred on the 11^th of September of 2001. Those events marked the beginning of a new era where terrorists have become the new number 1 enemies of the west. However, terrorists are not the only threat that we now must face. There are two great parallel wars, and not only one, going on in the world today. One is the war against Muslim fundamentalists. The second is the war against state oppression. The first is being fought by the governments of the west against Muslim fundamentalists in the name of the people that those governments represent. The second war, the one against oppression, is being fought by the people of the west against their own governments.

It has become common for governments to justify the violations of civil liberties in the name of the war on terror. Governments claim that, in order to protect their citizens against terrorists, they must be given more power. In other words, the people are expected to renounce to their power to control the government, and allow the government to control them more than ever. However, perhaps it is time to ask ourselves if we should give up our civil liberties in order to fight terrorism. If the people relinquish control in order to allow their governments to protect them from terrorists, then who will protect the people from their governments? Are civil liberties a fair price to pay for protection against terrorism? It is my opinion that they are not, that civil liberties are never a fair price to pay, since without civil liberty there can be no freedom or hope or democracy.

The events described have remitted us to one of the most fundamental political disjunctives: freedom v. security. It is likely that our future will depend on our choices now. If we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by fear then we will chose security. However, relinquishing freedom in order to obtain security will inevitably leave us at the mercy of our governments. Such a decision would ultimately lead to state oppression, and oppression would create even more fear. This path is dominated by the politics of fear, where political decisions are driven by fear and lead only to more fear instead of a real state of security. Freedom, on the other hand, requires courage to preserve. And without freedom there cannot be any lasting happiness or democracy. People who have lived in police states know that it is never worth it to sacrifice freedom. Terror can assume many forms. It is not only represented by religious fundamentalists. State oppression is also a form of terror, and it is often one that is much harder to fight off. The true war on terror cannot be won by sacrificing freedom because it would only lead to more terror. Terror must be extinguished in all its forms, and this is only possible if the people can keep the power to control their representatives.

The war on terror is upon us. The wars on terror have already started and it is likely that they will not be over soon. The challenge we face is to fight terrorists and at the same time protect our civil liberties. We can only win this war if we can fight it without sacrificing the freedom we are trying to protect. It is of vital importance that we stop the western governments from using the excuse of terrorism in order to take our freedom away. The war on terror is not only a war against terrorists, it is also a war against oppression, and to acknowledge this is the first step to start winning the war.