The unprecedented daylight attack on a British soldier in London last month has shocked many around the world. Like the Boston Marathon bombing, this attack was a direct assault on the peace and security of every citizen who values their cozy community.
The assailants were young British Muslim men of Nigerian origin. One in particular, 28-year-old Michael Adebolajo was a recent convert to Islam. After running down 25-year-old British soldier Lee Rigby with their car, the two assailants proceeded to hack him to death with knives and machetes; they dragged him into the middle of the street, eventually severing his head. At one point, Adebolajo says to a person filming him, “You will never be safe.” The attackers did not run, but stayed instead to confront police. Both attackers were shot and wounded by police. According to Adebolajo, the attacks were revenge for Western crimes against Muslims.
The vicious practice of beheading is common in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East, but is now becoming more prevalent in the West. Remember the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, where Hutus slaughtered Tutsis. In 100 days, approximately 800,000 people were slaughtered, many beheaded, in the first documented case of collective madness in modern history.
Slain British soldier Lee Rigby /Image: MoDLike many other people since the London attack, I have asked myself, what are we doing wrong? These individuals were known to security services, yet they planned and executed a brutal murder in broad daylight in a major western capital, with dozens of witnesses on a public street.
Like most journalists, I have taken a deep interest in 9/11 and subsequent wars, economic collapse, and present positions of major governments with respect to the so-called “War on Terror.” After September 11th 2001, if the Americans had done what the British did in the Falklands War of 1982, the world would be in a much safer place today. The British sent their navy 13,000 klms to re-capture the Falkland Islands from Argentina. After ten weeks, British marines re-captured the islands and went home. It must be the quickest war ever fought in the history of contemporary warfare.
The idea of capturing or killing Usama bin Laden in Afghanistan in two months and going home, sounds very appealing after 12 years of war and the added burden of more than $3 trillion to the U.S. treasury. In fact, the collective human cost of the “War on Terror” in pain, suffering and death, will never truly be tallied-up or justified.
What I have learned
With the London attack, the “War on Terror” has arrived at our front doors. In my view, beheading is a cruel sub-human behaviour akin to cannibalism or necrophilia. It reveals the true nature and intentions of those individual radicals, governments and gangs, who practice this form of extreme ultra-violence i.e., to strike fear and terror in the local population wherever it is perpetrated.
It is my view Muslim extremists like al Qaida, the Taliban, al Shaabab, Jemaah Islamiah, and Islamic Jihad cannot be successfully negotiated with, trusted, or believed. No matter where one lives in the world, Islamic religious extremists are bent on undermining democratic and constitutional rights, only to replace them with Sharia law. Islamic extremists believe they alone execute God’s will on earth, and no other religious beliefs will ever be tolerated by any regime they establish. Furthermore, Sharia law as understood by fanatics would reduce our women to chattel. Muslim militants will use our free democratic system against us, in the hope it will eventually lead to Sharia law in every country on Earth.
After 12 years of the “War on Terror,” no workable solution is at hand. The cost to the average taxpayer for added security and military intervention, combined with the inconceivable loss of life and limb, has been astronomical. We are now discovering Western security services made serious errors in judgment with several individuals who were investigated and later judged not to be a threat. The Boston Bombers and London attackers were previously investigated by foreign and domestic security services, who did exchange information.
At this point in history, whether the cause was just or not is irrelevant. The truth and ultimate conclusion to the depressing situation the West finds itself in today is clear: Michael Adebolajo is right —“You will never be safe”― even if you are a peaceful Muslim, Jew, Christian, Buddhist, or non-believer—until every last killer like him is rooted-out and destroyed.
