The massacre at Ft. Hood has been labeled as the first terrorist attack on US soil since 9-11. As more information continues to build about the influence of his Muslim faith and ties to terrorist sympathizers a message that must ring out more clearly is, “Remember the Balkans.”
Yugoslavia, the former dominant country of the Balkan Peninsula, was once one of the great nations of Europe. In the 90’s the country imploded becoming a killing field of neighbors that turned on and did the most horrific things to each other.
Take for example the country of Bosnia-Herzegovina. A country made up primarily of Croats, Serbs, and Bosnians and now governed by not one but 2 (TWO!) governments. Where once they shared the land, co-existed, shopped together, shared coffee, schools, playgrounds; in an instant began killing and torturing each other. A quick visit to the capitol Sarajevo, once a proud Olympic city, one will notice amongst the rich diversity of the Central European and Middle Eastern architecture, shops, restaurants and churches, a number of fresh cemeteries as a lingering reminder of their past.
What happened there that would not only turn neighbor against neighbor, but also turned people into less than animals, was among other things, paranoia.
The leadership and warlords knew exactly what to do to raise up the minions, to divide and conquer. There was an enemy, and that enemy was within, only not clearly defined, only an ideal, a culture, and they were going to kill you and your family unless you did something about it.
What followed was chaos and mayhem. Who was right and who was wrong became quite difficult to determine and therefore incredibly difficult to stop. Even those who tried not to get involved, not willing to give in to the craziness, got pulled in by either becoming victims or eventually victimizers out of need from protection.
This is the very definition and goal of Terror, the ultimate destruction of a society from within propagate by fear.
The US, like former Yugoslavia, is a land of many cultures. It is a country that celebrates its diversity accepting people of all cultures, races, and creeds. It is the most successful country in the history of the world, the most diverse, and the most progressive in integrating that diversity. Of course, it hasn’t always been that way, and it still has a long way to go, but it is very difficult to name a close competitor.
And although that diversity makes it unique and strong, it also, as in the Balkans, makes it vulnerable.
The US is not without internal conflict. As with most societies there are sharp divisions between political and ethnic groups, religions, schools, towns, families, even conflicts between music affiliations, genders, and pet owners. Yet these conflicts, regardless of their intensity remain isolated and controlled under the strength of the social fabric that holds the overall society together.
That social fabric has held the country strong for its existence, strengthening during times of external conflict, weakening during times of internal. Regardless, it has held strong, last being tested in the LA Riots and again on 9-11. Sadly for the former Yugoslavia, that net was proven to be fragile and therefore completely obliterated by paranoia/terror, the result of which was the physical and moral destruction of their once proud country.
In the recent aftermath of the Ft. Hood tragedy, information continues to pile up about the assailants ties to Muslim radicals and enemies to the US.
Most frightening is that an al-Qaeda leader published in an on-line magazine not a week before the attack calling for jihadists to conduct easy attacks on targets in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, as well as in Western nations "at war with Islam." They were to use easily accessible weapons and explosives and to not "waste a lot of time finding the materials."
Even if more information comes out about Maj. Hasan’s relationship to the Muslim world, terrorism and those seeking the destruction of the US. Even if the Ft. Hood incident is followed up by other’s like Hasan, who sympathize with the United State’s enemies, and even if more American-Muslims take up that call to attack, remember what happened when the Balkan people allowed that social fabric to wear down, to give in to paranoia, to let chaos take over.
How can this be avoided?
The social fabric of any society is held together by a sense of security and rule of law. The populace needs to know that they have a law that protects them and more importantly that law enforcement is on their side.
Therefore after each and every incident needs to be followed by swift and decisive action taken to restore order. Secondly, to restore a sense of security, the populace needs to believe that this was an isolated incident meaning: 1) steps are being taken to prevent this disaster and 2) The leadership of the affecting parties needs to speak out against the action.
In the case of Ft. hood and any “Terrorist” Action , 1) immediate action needs to be taken by law enforcement to not only deal with the incident, but to act strongly and swiftly against any criminal acts that take place in retaliation. 2) That needs to be paralleled with immediate words of assurance from both the US and Muslim leadership.
A lack of both will foster paranoia unfortunately against the Muslim community in the US and also in Europe and cause chaos in all respective societies. These steps have been the immediate response to all incidents from all US and UK leadership till now. If it doesn’t continue, terrorism wins. The leadership in Yugoslavia wanted their wars and took the LACK of steps necessary to see that happen. How has the current leadership responded?
Be warned, remember the Balkans.
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