Reactionary response to #westgate

Last Friday I was pondering over an article on March 2011 by Vogue on Asma Al Assad ‘A rose in the Dessert’ praising Assad’s regime as democratically elected by over 90% and an oasis of peace. In that very same month that the article appeared the Syrian Civil war began.

There seem to be a nascent explosion of volatility in the world at the present time with events happening in unpredictable ways. What Asma could not imagine days before the Syrian civil war was ‘how Palestinian children lived’ now she does not anymore and is presently in-housing her philanthropy which she used to take to Palestine in Assad’s PR instagram.

What lessons I draw from this experience especially after the #westgate attack on Kenya (May God rest the victims souls in Peace) is international wars do not know borders. We cannot live in an autarky of peace when there is war all around us. At some point in time we get to import it.

We cannot live in the same world with people who live in perpetual warfare. Whose everyday reality is our four day nightmare. Especially now that people who commit these atrocities are an international network that is faceless and cannot be profiled being exported all over the world (eg Al Nusra).

It is imperative that the government now sees to the end that peace is restored to Somalia, we cannot relent. War on terror can only be won if there are no more safe heavens for these beasts. If it is pursued with just reason (not to justify further radicalism) and if it is done in a concerted international level of cooperation of intelligence to track down the microcosm of the terrorism network.

But in the same breath as aforementioned while the perpetrators are Al Shabab most of the including their mastermind are international terrorists from the world over. So as we clean up our house in the backlash that is expected we must refrain from profiling Somalis.

I have heard outlandish sentiments which is only natural for our situations but must be checked. People cannot claim that we are one and that we will not allow tribe to divide us when in essence we are blaming the Somali tribe, we are now more willing to give up human rights to stay safe with even suggestions that the military should be everywhere, probably a legislation like ‘the patriot act’ in America will easily be passed.

Our situation is peculiar but not unique, we must very carefully examine how other nations have faced similar crises, learning from their success and avoiding their pitfalls.