Blanket media coverage and calls for revenge just fuel the cycle of violenceThe purpose of terrorism is not to kill or kill. It is to pursue a political cause through the massive publicity that is attached to terrifying incidents. nowadays’s bombs in Brussels,apparently related to the attacks in Paris final year and the capture of Salah Abdeslam final Friday, are patently intended to do just that. Merely killing passers-by serves no warlike purpose in itself. The explosive force derives from our reaction to it, or from the public attention awarded to it and from the response of the political community. Publicity and response are the terrorists’ “useful idiocies”. Related: Brussels attacks: were they revenge for Abdeslam's arrest? Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com