How will we respond? How will the civilized world react to the latest act of barbarism?
Those are the questions that linger in the wake of a bombing in Manchester, England. Those are the questions that accompany a heinous attack that killed at least 22 people and scarred one of the United States’ closest allies. The fact that the suicide bomber struck outside a concert by an American pop star, surely knowing that the audience would be filled with many teens and pre-teens, makes this latest show of cowardice particularly inhuman.
On Tuesday, the day after the attack, police identified the bomber as a 22-year-old of Libyan descent who was born in the United Kingdom. The Islamic State terror group claimed credit for the bombing, but no link has yet been found between the perpetrator and that organization, which has a vested interest in preserving its reputation as the most extreme of Islamic extremists.
The weight of the attack is burdensome, with an 8-year-old girl being among the first fatalities to be identified. Any parent can relate to the world-shattering terror produced by a youngster going out for an evening of entertainment and becoming a victim. Any citizen can be torn by the sense that such an incident could easily be repeated in the United States, where arenas and stadiums and anyplace else that attracts tens of thousands of people can be nearly impossible to secure. The horror of that reality leads to a mix of incredulity and sadness and anger, the kind that leaves us searching for answers and solutions.
So, how will we respond? One suggestion comes from scholar H.A. Hellyer in a column for CNN.com: “We will be called upon to react — and react we should. But the reaction ought not to be some kind of new ‘state of emergency’ that some have called for, or other kinds of knee-jerk alarmism. That’s patently what the attacker would have wanted — it’s what terrorists always want. It’s a victory we should never grant them. Manchester is resilient, and it will persevere, survive and thrive — and that’s the real message of this tragedy.”
Indeed, the goal of Islamist terrorists is to create chaos and to shake the foundations of Western societies. And while we must remain beholden to our ideals, it would be folly to ignore the threat posed by people so consumed with hatred that they are willing to sacrifice themselves in order to be heard. Homegrown terrorists — such as the Manchester bomber, the Orlando shooter, and the shooter in San Bernardino, Calif. — are particularly insidious, well beyond the reach of travel bans or conventional methods for identifying would-be murderers.
For his part, President Trump on Tuesday called for “all civilized nations” to “obliterate this evil ideology” — a profound message that must be repeated often. He also said, “I won’t call them monsters because they would like that term. … I will call them from now on ‘losers’ because that’s what they are.” While not being the most eloquent of responses, it also points out the fact that flowery rhetoric has done little to stem the scourge of radical extremists upon the civilized world.
No, such a victory will require vigilance. And cooperation among citizens and governments. And persistent declarations that we will not bow to terrorists or allow their ideology to triumph. As Hellyer points out, the underlying goal of extremists is “to steal our humanity.” Our reaction must demonstrate that they will fail in this effort.
