Whenever there's a national tragedy, there's always a struggle to figure out exactly how to react to the events, and how to push forward through them. That is especially difficult in terms of a terrorist attack such as the one that occurred in Ottawa last week, with the question being what the country can do now that this has happened.
The instinct to punish the perpetrators is one that's difficult in this case, because the connections between the perpetrator, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, and any larger group is somewhat difficult to ascertain. He was influenced by someone, but all evidence points to him being an individual rather than working as part of a bigger, more organized plan. That is not meant to downgrade the severity of what he did, but it does mean that he has already been punished, given that he has been killed.
Even if he did act alone, there were people who wanted to see terrorist attacks in Canada, and it's arguably those people who influenced Zehaf-Bibeau to actually do what he did. There are connections to ISIS, likely because of Canada pledging to support a mission in Iraq to try to get rid of it, which before last week was a much more controversial idea than it has wound up being in the aftermath. But if there is a mission in Iraq, how do we handle it?
Keep in mind that previous missions in Iraq have not gone well, that's why we still have things like ISIS. Going in with guns blazing has done little more than anger people and encourage an increased amount of radicalization among the population. The issue with the middle east is that nobody has figured out how to handle the aftermath, and a group of frustrated and angry people start to blame western powers for their problems, and start plotting to fight back. Their solution is just going to cause a reaction in the countries they attack, leading to a vicious and violent circle. The problem is that we simply don't seem to know how else to actually handle the situation.
I certainly don't claim to have a solution. We're working with a contradiction here. Something clearly needs to be done about ISIS, they're a radical and violent group that has to be stopped in some way. Unfortunately, just outright attacking them you run the risk of creating another ISIS, any collateral damage in the fight and you create the same conditions that lead to the creation of ISIS in the first place. It's clear that the group cannot be allowed to operate, they're too violent. The question is how you stop them, and it's frighteningly obvious that nobody has an answer to that question. Nobody had an answer to that question a decade ago with a similar group with a different name was attacking people, and now we've just got the same problem in a different set of clothes.
It's easy to just give up and assume that terrorism will never go away, just live in fear for the rest of our lives. I think that there is a way to do it, a way to handle groups like ISIS without creating the atmosphere that makes more terrorist organizations spring up. Believing there is a solution and knowing what it is are not the same thing though, and I hope someone smarter than myself is in a position of power, giving it sober and rational consideration in the wake of a national tragedy.
