Monday, December 01, 2008

Can governments protect the public from terror atacks?

Terrorists are too smart to be destroyed easily. They’re like a cancer that finds a way to grow when it’s attacked in its first location. Like a cancer, it should be treated in its infancy. But now it has become lethal threatening to develop unnoticed because it has its evasive ways.

The fight against terrorism shouldn’t be at the expense of privacy and individual freedom. Politicians should be accountable for terror attacks if their security measures are lax and terrorist attacks are carried out when it should have been prevented in advance.

Governments can fight terrorism radically if it has sophisticated security means and the whole population is mobilized to refute its strategies and ideologies, and to inform about any suspect terrorist individual or network. If terrorists can’t be put out of existence, at least they won’t have the chance to create havoc now and then on regular basis and at places of their choice, leaving the security corps look impotent and fooled.

Morocco wasn’t immune from terrorist attacks as it was disastrously its victim on May 16th, 2003, leaving 42 dead. However, precautions were taken to surround Isalimsts suspected of sympathizing with terrorism or planning it.

However, Morocco, despite its ongoing dismantlement of many terrorist cells remains a safe country for its citizens and visitors. Millions of tourists visit it each year mainly from Europe. There are thousands of Europeans who have come to live in it, especially in the old city of Marrakesh where they easily and comfortably mix with the locals.

What matters to deal with terrorism is continuous vigilance, sensitizing the citizens about its dangers and securing for them a stable life not to see destabilising the country through terrorism or otherwise as a means to voice their protest and to take action.

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