ALMOST every week, global news brings reports  about attacks on innocent people by terrorists. It has become so common, it no longer shocks. But it should.

There is the  North African Al Shabaab inflicting a brutal attack on 143 children in a Kenyan school  a week ago. Nigeria’s Boko Haram is so pissed with “western civilization and education” they  have inflicted a wave of abductions, bombings and assassinations. 

But the most dangerous remains the ISIS who wants to establish a nameless terror group in  several states with a lurid philosophy that “anyone who is not governed by what Allah has revealed is among its transgressors.” ISIS is moving out of the Middle East to Asia like India and Pakistan. Without our knowing, the Philippines and Brunei has been regularly used  as “pass through” points of  ISIS Southeast Asian recruits with Malaysia as ISIS ‘ main transit point.

It is only a matter of time before the ISIS  makes its dreaded presence felt in the Philippines and only God knows the extent what  “men with bad intentions” will do in a western-allied country like ours.

The danger with terrorism is that  it is a Faceless Monster – without a country. It was easier to declare war in World  War II because clearly Japan airplanes attacked unprovoked and killed more than 2,000 Americans in Hawaii. On  September 11, 2001 , more than 6,000 people from 80 nations perished in New York –  against what nation does the Free World declare war against? No one.

And yet -daily the whole world is in a state of war alert – against terrorists who attack sporadically-poor people now knowing  just where, how  or when.  Then it relies on electronic media – to magnify in the most dramatic way-the terror and the resulting demoralization  and make the terrorists “appear what they are  actually not- powerful”.

It therefore continues to puzzle us why the Palace has not propagandized  the line that the Masapano Incident, more than the death of 44 fallen heroes, more than a  weird friendship of a president and a disgrace police chief, more than a threat to the passage of the Bangsamoro Law- it was a  magnificent triumph of the Free World vs Terrorism.  The tacit presence of  American military intelligence and logistics  there merely underscores it was a “global event”- and the Palace should have appeared gloriously  triumphant rather than vacillating in a strange brew of undeserved remorse and paralyzed conviction as to its righteousness.

It is easy to call the radio and TV, write the editors and inundate social media with criticisms versus the authorities on the Masapano incident. But -lest we forget-a  grizzled, deadly bomber Marwan was in our midst-with blood stained on his hands and polo shirt- and instead of celebrating  with vodka the  brilliant execution of terrorist-bomber with millions of bounty money on his head- with self flagellate ourselves and make our military outfits fight each other (AFP vs PNP) and ask a president to resign. Was Communications secretary Sonny Coloma’s transfer -a consequence of this myopic “crisis management” and “damage control” situation on the presidency? Who knows?

What if Marwan had designed a bomb and exploded it a a bus along EDSA (as had happened one Valentines Day in the past), a passenger vessel (as it happened in the Visayas) and God forbid an airline with 300 passengers? It is easy to overlook the dangers of terrorism since we are not yet directly affected. But one day ….. Obviously, we have taken the issue of terrorism very lightly.

When 20 terrorists pile-drove in 2011 two airliners into two  New York iconic buildings and into the heart of Pentagon, a security data base center- the barbaric terrorists wanted to humiliate America by reducing into atomized debris two of her symbols of economic and military might. How does one deal with terrorism? No low grade response will do.

High octane counter propaganda and weapons of war are the answers.

When a man is attacked by a drunken person  with an ax unjustly with a clear view to kill, we believe it is part of one’s recognition of the sanctity of life to kill for one’s own self-preservation. This has basis on both Canon and secular laws.

The CBCB (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines” had once quoted regarding the possible  violent reprisals against terrorists by saying that ” war in self defense is morally allowable.” Enough of fence sitting, then. In the Bible, when the merchants desecrated the temple by selling wares, Jesus (The Man of Peace) violently dispersed the activity. It was a physical and appropriate response and was proportionate to the offense.

When it comes to terrorism, giving the other cheek as a Christian response -after a violent slap on the face-will not do. It will  only embolden them to do even worse.

Since the enemy desires -for its convenience – to remain invisible, it is our duty to find them and expose their phantom stage into a physical reality -and assault it.  For the Free World will always be vulnerable to committed fanatics whose idea of going straight to their heaven is to die heroically- dramatically , if possible- with CNN and BBC cameras alighted -and inflict maximum harm to the enemy.

Along with drugs, global terrorism is one helluva scourge of humanity -and must  be dealt with -like the drug evil- with force  because it is necessary. We cannot counter terrorism by preaching peace while the enemies with swords drawn from their scabbards are daily (insidiously and invisibly) harking by one’s door steps.

Terrorism wants to deprive a government of “respect and legitimacy by demonstrating to the people that it cannot guaranty public safety.” It wants to petrify people into a paralyzing fear-unable to go about their normal lives  and thereby demoralize the nation at large.

People may be slow to anger- but they are entitled to righteous indignation when the very virtues that make this world livable- democracy, freedom and justice- are threatened by saber-rattling infidels whose agenda is written in blood of  wanton destruction.

The world opinion makers had sadly claimed that after the September 11 Slaughter in New York, the world will never be the same again. It has not been.

In 2006, the United Nations adopted a Global Counter Terrorism Strategy of which all members nations as the Philippines is- are signatories.

Whether a nation like us  passively waits for the next bomb to explode or a visiting Pope to be assassinated in her land or to laser-search the infidels before they officially take  roots in the homeland is a matter of choice.

It is also called “political will”. Does the country have that?

For comments: email to dejarescobingo@yahoo.com or bohol-rd@mozcom.com