Terror Hysteria Issues Through Europe

“Terrorists have targeted and attacked subway and rail systems, as well as aviation and maritime services. U.S. citizens should take every precaution to be aware of their surroundings and to adopt appropriate safety measures to protect themselves when traveling.” The official announcement referenced attacks from the past.

Travelers are warned to take extra security measures. They’re told to protect themselves and remain aware of their surroundings. How is an average person expected to protect themselves against gunfire? It’s like those airline pamphlets that advise placing your head between your knees in the event of a crash landing at high speeds, when they would be just as likely to survive doing a headstand on their armrest.

In Europe, the average traveller is in need of a decent Kevlar body suit.

There’s a high level of uncertainty to the alert. Not only is it nearly all-encompassing with it’s list of locations (all standard tourist hot-spots like the Eifel tower, the London Eye, the Louvre, etc.) but on top of that, the US State Department has been vague about the potential geographic location of an attack, suggesting Britain, France, Denmark and Germany.

Wouldn’t travelers be better off if they hadn’t been warned at all? The feeling of impending doom can seriously ruin the leisurely atmosphere of a vacation. The report advises to “…Be aware of your surroundings”. That sounds utterly miserable. I can picture the Louvre-packed with bloated, red-faced and fanny-pack toting American tourists, all spinning their heads on a swivel to scrutinize every (lets be honest…) brown-skinned or suspiciously well-tanned figure in their general vicinity.

The question of the hour would be, just where is the evidence of the threat that would warrant such a paranoia? Well, this is a post 9/11 military era where pre-emptive strike is the name of the game. The US report was issued based on intelligence reports from detained militants in the Afghan-Pakistan border region, as well as intercepted “electronic chatter” which hinted at planned European attacks. This month also marks the largest deployment of drone strikes against militant insurgents in Pakistan

Drone strikes are imperative for a policy of offshore balancing. Nevertheless, they are piecemeal, tactical efforts that do little to alter the Pakistani security establishment’s support for Islamist proxies as a hedge against India, Pakistan’s primary enemy. Indeed, massive aerial bombings did not win the war in Vietnam, and it’s not going to change the bigger picture in South Asia.

Perhaps the more disturbing aspect of the current debate over Afghanistan, drone strikes, et cetera, has been the inadequate examination of core assumptions. Mainly, that the neo-jihadists that threaten America are not held hostage to the outdated notion of "territory." Only we are. We seem to have forgotten that 9/11 was planned not only in Afghanistan, but also in Germany, Spain, and the United States. Even the radicalized youths suspected of plotting the recent Mumbai-style terror plot in Europe came from the same mosque in Hamburg where the 9/11 hijackers gathered.