The Westminster Attack

Wednesday’s one-man terrorist attack on a policeman and several other Londoners near Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament by Khalid Masood, a British tiol, takes one back to similar attacks carried out earlier by small groups in Paris and Brussels. The Wesminster attack by a motorist who later got out of his car and started attacking people with a knife, led to the death of a policeman and injuries to about 40 people. Most of the injuries were caused when Khalid Masood mowed down pedestrians on the Westminster bridge with his car before dashing into a steel barrier near the Houses of Parliament. The assassin later succumbed to the bullets of a policeman. Khalid, aged 52, did have a crimil record, but the police had “no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack” or that he could be used by the ISIS that claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s London attack. The attack on London was not entirely unexpected considering that the ISIS had embarked on a specific plan of attack on European capitals with the objective of striking terror in the minds of all Europeans. Quite obviously, such terrorist attacks on innocent people in European cities could only strengthen the determition of European tions and the United States to end the activities of the ISIS permanently. This is easier said than done as the United States is beginning to discover. Many European cities have already been silently invaded by ISIS cadres, and many more such attacks on European cities in order to send out the warnings of the ISIS cannot be ruled out. This can only stoke belligerence where there was none, thus making the world a rather unsafe place to live in for all law-abiding and peace-loving citizens. Perhaps the most heart-warming and inspiring aspect of these terrorist attacks by the ISIS and its followers on European countries is the absence of any instant military responses by the governments or people of these countries beyond the ritual condemtion of such terrorist activities. The ability of the concerned European tions to take such unwarranted and dastardly attacks in their stride—as though it was beneath their dignity to scream at such dastardly acts—effectively destroys the potential of terrorist attacks to generate widespread fear. The ability of Londoners to stay calm in the face of such grave provocation and to help in a swift return to normalcy negates the anticipated fallouts of terrorist attacks. The general belief that there is a time and place for retaliatory action, and that uncontrolled and mindless retaliation can only aggravate hatred, can go a long way in working out strategies to elimite the ISIS mece permanently and in a civilized way.