http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -word.htmlFear is all around us so why, suddenly, are our politicians all so terrified of the T-word?
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Finally, after more than 24 hours, two bomb blasts, multiple devices located and an Afghan suspect identified as Most Wanted by the F.B.I., Mayor Bill de Blasio has acknowledged the attacks on New York may be specific attack of terror.
How stubborn can one man be? So dedicated to liberal values and multiculturalism, sitting hand in hand with our Muslim mayor from London, he refuses to accept the blatantly obvious.
New York has been hit by a terror attack.
Refusing to acknowledge this gets increasingly frustrating as more devices are found: five more in a backpack near the train station in New Jersey this morning, detonating as the bomb squad attempted to disarm them; two more in Manhattan on Saturday night; a pipe bomb at a train station in Elizabeth earlier that day; a man calling into the New York police warning there would be more attacks, nine stabbed in Minnesota.
All within 48 hours.
Governor Andrew Cuomo was on hand to acknowledge the increasingly obvious: ‘a bomb exploding in New York is obviously an act of terrorism.’
But even he tried to narrow the definition to something more reassuring: ‘It is an act of terrorism. But it’s not linked to international terrorism.’
Oh well that’s alright then. Why didn’t you say? It’s just good old domestic got-to-blow-someone-up-ism. It’s positively American, like baseball.
For the sane amongst us, finding out you have home-grown terror is not a comforting thing.
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We have seen exactly the same reticence to speak plainly here in Europe.
It feels like after every heinous act here in Britain we are told ‘there is no link to terror’. After our neighbours and countrymen are hacked apart, cut down by shrapnel or driven over by a lorry, we are told not to jump to conclusions.
We have become hardened to strangulated headlines concealing the truth; ‘Syrian dies in German blast’ – politically correct speak for a story about a migrant who blew himself up with a suicide vest.
Our public broadcaster the BBC even re-christened one attacker, from Ali to David, to make him sounds less jihadi for the reader.
The BBC re-christened, German attacker Ali David Sonboly, as just David, to make him sound less jihadi for the reader
The BBC re-christened, German attacker Ali David Sonboly, as just David, to make him sound less jihadi for the reader
We are used to hearing the attacker who stabbed ten people had a history of mental health issues, or the guy who macheted a family to death on a train was a lovely guy who kept himself to himself and was very quiet at the mosque. Or three girls who left to be Jihadi Brides were ‘straight A students’.
All euphemisms for fear.
Even our response is well-rehearsed: prayers, hashtags, tea-lights and vigils in public squares. A building lit up red, white and blue. How long until New York has to do the same?
We are also used to the reaction from the liberal left, who start shouting about not giving in to hate, somehow blaming all this on the basket of deplorables, quoting everyday people who say they are going to go about their lives as usual because you can’t give in to fear.
But this is largely a lie.
We may have to get up and get on with it because we have to get to work or school or to get food.
But fear is like damp. It is pervasive. It starts to catch you in the quiet moments. Looking around you on the subway for strange bags or packages.
Wondering about the man who is looking a bit strange.
Not fear for oneself, usually, because we are all capable of accepting that one day our time will be up. I have already accepted I am living on bonus time.
It’s fear for our family. For the daughter on her school trip to France. For the son as he leaves for work. For our pregnant wife as she rides the subway. We start asking for texts to say they are OK. The same texts I send to my own mum — ‘safe in the office’ — so she won’t worry for me.
This is the true language of terror. Quiet reassurances required in spite of an uneventful day, in this first world country, the land of the free, the enemy within.
We have learned not to expect too much from our politicians. But I think we should start to expect more of them than this. More than cover-ups and ‘calming’ lines which do the opposite.
More than Bill de Blasio, holding out against the use of one word ‘terror’– when, in truth, it is all around.
More than Cuomo, trying to redefine the terror so it sits conveniently in some other part of the world, somewhere international, far away.
More than Clinton, still defending an immigration policy which fails to protect the country others choose to join.
Politicians finally forced to acknowledge what we could see all along. The terror is right here at your door.
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