The Linux Extremist

It is a beautiful morning in West Sussex. The torrid summer, at long last, appears to be fading, and the sunshine is pleasant rather than oppressive. I got up, looked out over my garden, I heard the birds singing. I got myself a coffee, and then sat at my PC. I typed in a post about my adventures with BSD. Then I switched on the news.

On the news was John Reid, the Home Secretary; he announced a plot had been foiled.  Its intent, he said was “to bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions causing a considerable loss of life”.

My intial reaction is not repeatable in polite company. My girlfriend travels by air all the time, so it’s not like I’m removed from this. I imagine her reaction is going to be just as livid when she finds out she can’t take hand luggage on the plane any longer, thanks to the terrorists.

That, however, is a minor consideration. Let’s review what the terrorists had in mind, which is very similar to what they did on 9/11. In the name of “Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate”, they intended to seize planes full of innocent men, women and children and kill them all. Unable to strike against military or political targets directly, they intend to make civilians feel unsafe in the hopes they can scare us into submission. Obviously the terrorists didn’t read about what happened when Adolf Hitler tried to bomb London in order to achieve the same aim. Here’s a clue for any terrorists reading: it failed.

What’s inexplicable is that the terrorists should be able to look at Lebanon and see the same thing; Israel hitting Beirut has fuelled defiance, not destroyed it. In Israel’s case, defiance doesn’t matter as they are going after military targets, namely Hezbollah’s infrastructure. In the terrorists’ case, as the aim is destroy our will to fight, they are pursuing means which are counterproductive to their ends. They would be better off trying to create a dance craze which causes hip injuries.

Really, the terrorists are unenlightened, uneducated jerks. Sun Tsu advised in the Art of War to “know thy enemy”; they don’t. Sun Tsu also advised, “know thyself”. I wonder if they have sufficient brain cells to remember their postal codes let alone know who they really are. People who embrace extreme ideologies tend to be those who have a weak hold on their own identity and need to find purpose and meaning in their lives by being told what to do by others.

Given this, I doubt reasoning with these people would achieve anything. So I have a suggestion: unleash Jack Bauer.

All right, I’m speaking as a “24″ junkie; I am operating under the assumption that there is a real life equivalent. However, I do admire the way that Jack Bauer deals with terrorists: I’ve seen him shoot one in the knee, break another’s fingers and use electrical shocks. I’ve seen him shoot terrorists and grab them by the wound to make them talk; this was particularly enjoyable when he did it in Season 2 to a “little rich girl” who was “playing terrorist”. The fictional organisation to which Jack belongs, the Counter Terrorist Unit, also has a specialist in causing pain to suspects.

In the West, we are rightly reticent about using torture; we regard that as the hallmark of barbaric regimes. However it’s clear that the terrorists simply do not have the same scruples that we do; it would seem they regard our reticence as a form of weakness. For example, the terrorists should be just as aggrieved by the treatment of the Muslim minority in China. The difference is, the terrorists know that the Chinese will use Jack Bauer-esque methods or worse to get them to talk, and kill them quietly as a punishment.

Our political leaders could change tactics; they could enable MI5 and the FBI to start doing things the Jack way. I doubt there would be little opposition among the general public. I suspect that they don’t do so because of fear of some very vocal special interest groups. Ironically, it is many of these special interest groups that would be most adversely affected if the terrorists did achieve their aim of global hegemony.

Meanwhile, we should compliment the police and security services in Britain for a job well done in foiling today’s plot. One can only hope that they have the tools, in the absence of a Bauer-esque mandate, to prevent further incidents. Perhaps this latest incident will serve as a reminder that this mandate would be useful.

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