The Sickness of the Mind.

The world has reached a stage where killing has become routine. We have read in the past, in history about war, it`s gruesome effects on the world, on the people, the scars it leaves on the generations to come. With the advent of Nuclear warfare, mass extermination became a dreaded reality. The big nations, or the more powerful nations called for a ceasefire. We expected such things would become bad dreams of the past, but hatred is slow to recede, at least that is what is evident from the advances of the present century.

We became mute spectators, as we witnessed chemical warfare, gross human rights violations and from the dark of it all, a huge ugly monster raised it`s deadly hood. While we shuddered at it`s grunts, the more distant, sighed! Terrorism was born.

War was in ancient days, fought against soldiers, by the soldiers. Today the first targets are innocent civilians

In a series of fresh air strikes, Israeli warplanes blasted
fuel tanks at the Beirut International Airport.
The death toll in Lebanon
has now reached 140 and those killed in the Israeli airstrikes are mostly
civilians.
In the Israeli airstrikes, 16 people were killed and a 100 wounded
in Lebanon's southern city of Tyre.

We, in India, supposedly a peaceful democracy, are only now recovering slowly from the after effects of the terrible tragedy we witnessed on the 7th of July, when we witnessed the sad deaths of our brothers and sisters in Mumbai. People, had just boarded a train as usual, not suspecting anything but their daily work and schedule, but some one else had planned to disrupt that day of theirs, and today, their families, their children, their friends, all their lives have been disrupted.

The most saddening aspect of these activities, where terror is unleashed is that the perpetrator`s mind is totally bereft of any reason, any logical insight into his/her own actions. There is a great misunderstanding in their minds, that they are doing all this for the goodness of their brethren. There is a gross misconception that what they are doing is similar to waging a war.! But, the fact is that it is not.! The mind of the terrorist is vastly different from that of a soldier. A soldier is one who fights to maintain peace, he/she fights for the safety of his/her people, and a soldier`s target is always an enemy, who would kill him, if he didn`t react first. A soldier never takes the life of a civilian. Of course there have been exceptions or great mistakes like in Abu Ghraib, but that does not justify an act of terrorism, and an act of killing innocent civilians.

In a major attack, nearly 800 armed Naxalites killed 20
villagers and injured over 70 people, besides kidnapping 20 others in Dantewada
district of Chhattisgarh.
IG Intelligence, Chhattisgarh, Giridhari Naik said
that his troops reached the area as soon as they got report of the trouble and
were able to drive back the Naxals.
However, the Naxals managed to kidnap
over 20 people, including a woman Special Police Officer, from the camp.

The mind of a terrorist is sick. It does not know to see reason. It does not know to appreciate life. It does not have the capacity to stop following false ideals blindly. Terrorism is like a cancer of the mind, it does not have a permanent cure and there is no known treatment. We try to kill the disease, by killing the body holding the mind, but it is hugely contagious, and today`s victims are all infected by a very small unseen virus called hatred. They could very well grow up to be tomorrow`s terrorists.

In Kashmir, small boys are paid 50 rupees to throw a grenade. None of the children, in safer areas or with a home to go back, would ever do such a thing, but these children are not just children, they are also victims, and they need retribution. They are in search of killing an unknown enemy. They are the terrorists of tomorrow, and it is in their care and proper upbringing that lies the greatest threat to terrorism. Government taking stringent measures, taking suspicious people into custody, distributing relief, all these are mere painkillers. In such quick steps, and with the loss of public memory, the big picture more often sadly fades out.

Everywhere there are children, even in Lebanon, even in Mumbai, in SriLanka, in any part of the world, where there has been an act of sinister dimension, there is a child, who has lost a home, who has lost a future, and in his/her blank mind, there is only one question.. WHY ?

In his/her search for the answer, if he/she fails to identify the real enemy, if he/she fails to see the big picture, the world once more becomes a mute witness to the birth of another terrorist, the birth of another sick mind.