Roger Marshall is a computer scientist, a newly minted Luddite and a cynic.
Credit: DH Illustration
Ever since 9/11, the word ‘terrorist’ has entered the vocabulary of many nations across the globe and is used by leaders to label any individual or organisation that they feel does not adhere to their own narrow definitions of what constitutes acceptable behaviour in any sphere of human activity – economic, political, social, religious, or anything else.
The US ‘war on terror’ seems to have no boundaries, either within its own borders or outside. In the past two weeks, US war planes (and drones operated by nameless, faceless individuals sitting in front of computer terminals) have attacked fishing boats in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and killed civilians, using as justification that the boats were being operated by ‘narco-terrorists’ who bring drugs to the US. It is only a matter of time before the US starts attacking Central and Latin America because drug cartels are known to operate in countries such as Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia. By the same line of reasoning, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand (the so-called ‘golden triangle’) would be next in line to face the wrath of the US. During the Cold War, the most dreaded descriptors of individuals and organisations were ‘Communist’, ‘Red’, and ‘fellow traveller’ – these were designations guaranteed to ensure the destruction of those labelled such.
Even within the US, the labelling of antifascist groups, pro-Palestine protesters, and anti-fossil fuel climate-change advocates as terrorists has become part of US statecraft. How long will it be before the illegal immigrants (and many legal immigrants and US citizens) are labelled as terrorists, picked up off the streets, and deported to third countries by mask-wearing ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents? There is documented evidence of ICE agents detaining journalists and other citizens for photographing their operations, in total violation of constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and assembly. Curiously enough, many states in the US have banned the wearing of masks in public by citizens, unless they belong to law enforcement agencies.
Halfway across the globe, a similar state of affairs obtains in Israel. By labelling Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organisations, Israel has been justifying its concerted efforts to eradicate them. Israel’s genocidal activities in Gaza can only be labelled as the actions of a terrorist state, but no major European power has called it such. Islamophobia has many adherents, and the arms industry stands to benefit greatly, so it would seem. Israel has the distinction of being among the countries that have assassinated the highest number of people.
If any two countries considered themselves truly exceptional, they would have to be the United States and Israel. There are a great many commonalities between the two countries, be it in how they were birthed as nations or how they have conducted themselves over the years of their existence vis-à-vis other nations. If ‘manifest destiny’ was the guiding principle in the territorial expansion of America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, ‘Greater Israel or Revisionist Zionism’ has been the guiding principle in Israel’s stated objective to annex Gaza, the West Bank, and parts of Lebanon.
We need to constantly remind ourselves that, in many nations, individuals as well as parties that currently hold power are but sanitised versions of their previous avatars, i.e., once labelled as terrorists or terrorist organisations. While the Taliban is a good example, an even better example is provided by Israel. Netanyahu’s party, Likud, traces its origin to the Irgun, a Zionist paramilitary organisation, which committed numerous terrorist acts against Palestinian Arabs. Hannah Arendt (she coined the phrase ‘banality of evil’) and Albert Einstein compared Irgun and its successor Herut party to “Nazi and fascist parties” and described Irgun as a “terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organisation”. Herut is the political predecessor of the Likud party.
There has been a proposal mooted by a Florida politician calling for the deportation of all Indian immigrants in the US. Given the current administration in Washington, it is totally within the realm of possibility. After all, Indians were summarily ejected from Uganda during Idi Amin’s regime; they were also thrown out, not once but twice, from Myanmar.
If Iran’s Revolutionary Guard can be labelled as a terrorist organisation, why not ICE? Or Mossad?
The writer is a computer scientist, a newly minted Luddite and a cynic.