Counter-terrorism may be a new form of terrorism

Twice is he armed whose fight is just. And thrice is he armed who hits the first blow. Those two sayings combined sum up the stand of the nations who believe that the best defense against terrorists is to initiate the offense. And indeed there is much to be said for a pre-emptive strike against terrorists.

But there are two basic problems involved. First is that to date, there is no basic definition of terrorists. As the famous phrase says, "One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter." Second, current international terrorists do not operate in their own country. If the country where they operate has willfully provided them with a place of operation, then that country is an accomplice. But if they are illegally operating in foreign country, then that country is a victim of their operation and can in no way be held liable for their nefarious deeds. In the case of the Abu Sayyaf, they are even from the Philippines. They kidnap foreigners and give the Philippines the international image that no foreigner is safe in any of our 7,000 islands.

Now Australia and Canada have closed their embassies in the Philippines. This in itself is a great victory for the terrorists. Both countries claim that the reason for their drastic action was that they had intelligence information that their respective embassies would be attacked. If this policy is internally adopted, then the future of all international relations is now totally in the hands of terrorists. What will Australia and Canada do if the same terrorists who threatened to attack their embassies in Manila now take the necessary steps to menace their other embassies in, let us say, Washington, London, Berlin and Paris? With the closure of the two embassies n Manila, you can rest assured that embassies will now be a favorite target of all terrorist groups.

Senior Adviser Robert H. Kupperman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said, "There is only one area of broad agreement about terrorism – the United States and its allies are against it, so much that we have "declared war" upon terrorists. Other than truisms about the need for international cooperation, no consensus has been established. In fact, few can agree upon a definition of terrorism. But, we do know some of its characteristics. It is political extortion that employs violence or the threat of violence; such extortions are usually targeted against large nations. The usual goal is to destabilize, to make a democratic government appear impotent and to amplify these effects through the electronic marvels of television. In sum, terrorism is theater."

The closure of the Australian and Canadian embassies in Manila is great worldwide publicity for international terrorists. And they achieved it without exploding even a firecracker.