It would be rather naïve to link the terrorist attack in Paris with the Jihadists’ “response” or “revenge” for something specific. France did not take part in the anti-terror campaigns in Iraq and Syria. It sent there just a couple of old planes. So, it was not their key enemy. The point here is that historically France is the easiest target in Europe. Today, ISIL and Al Qaeda are having hard times in the Middle East, so, they needed to move the war to another territory in order to distract and to scare the enemy. They have no resources for something more destructive. The only weapon they have in their arsenal today is mass terror.
Terror as a daily practice is not revenge literally, but a method of warfare, which is condemned worldwide. Some 120-130 years ago there were “legal warfare methods” but they crashed in South Africa during the Second Boer War, when civilized Englishmen created “concentration camps” for women and children and killed there as many as 20,000 people (the photo of Boer girl Lizzie van Zyl, who died of starvation – a pure Buchenwald, is known worldwide). The Englishmen burned down farms, killed horses and shot down all who dared to protest, while the Boers, whom the British propaganda machine called medieval savages kept sticking to the mythical “warfare rules” even when starving. Only when the Englishmen began cutting to pieces the Boers’ coats and cloths so they had nothing to wear in winter, did the Boer generals de Wet and de la Rey bite the bullet and let their men undress British POWs so as not to freeze.
In all times, those committing terror tried to justify themselves. In Lithuania, they are still trying to prove that their Forest Brothers – who in 1944 killed civilians for cooperation with the Soviet regime – were not terrorists. The same practices were used in Latin America by Marxist and Maoist groups.
The same is for ISIL and Al Qaeda: terrorism is their method of warfare, their daily life. Today they are warring against the whole world on a daily basis – for they cannot build their Caliphate in just one country. Caliphate can be only global, so, their “revolution” has neither beginning nor end. In this war, there are no civilians and no limits. If at a given moment it was easier for them to organize a slaughter in Paris, why not. It was just military expedience. To them, life and death are not what they are to us, so, what is inadmissible to us may well be admissible to them.
Unlike the terrorist attack in New York, the one in Paris did not need special preparations. Its organizers just used their chance to cause as much damage as possible as quickly as possible. And the last thing they cared for was ethics. They don’t even know such a word.
The Europeans have a very short memory despite their long history and old humanitarian and cultural traditions. On the other hand, they have a strange habit to stick to their own artificial civilization myths. So, we can hardly expect the European leaders to revise the social and racial structures of their societies or their tolerance and security principles. The best we can expect them to do is to reinforce their borders. The French have already counteracted by striking al-Raqqah, the informal capital of ISIL in Syria. Their planes just dropped some 20 bombs somewhere. Some EU members may take measures to defend themselves, but they will hardly go beyond the limits set by their own “unity” myth – for otherwise they would have to review their decades-old policies.
In the meantime, ordinary Europeans are changing their attitudes even though their leaders are still talking about tolerance and multiculturalism. Very soon, the genetically socialist French society will resume talking about “poor Arab boys,” who just need higher benefits to drop their tummy guns and suicide belts. In France, socialism is superior to nationalism. This is very much like the Soviet times, when the Bolshevik leaders believed that the only cause of inter-ethnic conflicts was the lack of sausage.
When terror becomes an ordinary method of warfare, you can’t cope with it by just lighting candles or posting beautiful profile pictures in social networks. In France, many people believe that doing something kind is enough for solving the problem of terror. This is why Russia’s calls to form an anti-terror coalition are drowning in their disputes about good and bad and their inability to overcome stereotypes.
Yevgeny Krutikov