A Path Toward a New Approach

The 9/11 catastrophe is an historical event, a deeply traumatic one, at many levels: for people who in this dreadful destruction lost their relatives, friends and colleagues, but also for western governments who thought that the USA was well protected against such attacks. Almost everyone in the world lived, through television, this incredible but real, significant and symbolic tragedy. If most of the people were shocked, amazed, and have experienced it like a thunderbolt in an open sky, we probably must admit now that 9/11 is the first attack in a long series which does not refer only to the USA. Given the significant role of the USA in the world, 9/11 is a worldwide event. Moreover, with a little distance, the reaction pointing terrorism as an “Axis of Evil” seems clearly insufficient. What if terrorism should be understood as a reaction to a previous event, at least as traumatic but inadequately thought and treated by western democracies and major international institutions? First, it should be outlined that explaining (or trying to explain) terrorism should not be interpreted to justify these acts of destructive violence. In this specific context, I wouldn’t fully subscribe to the famous quotation from Mme de Stael: “To understand is to forgive”, even if this idea is pleasant. However, trying to think what is happening now to us (I mean not only to “USA” but also to western democracies and many countries of Africa) supposes to put aside all forms of wishful thinking. Destructive violence in mankind, even if foolish, murderous and unreasonable, is supposed to have some logic. Understanding this destructive violence is a necessary condition for fighting it in a more intelligent way then– as always–war is. The choice is clear. If we don’t understand terrorism, which is part of our collective history, there is one path only to fight it: war, which is also destructive and jeopardizes our liberties [1].