If this is Peace?
This article was originally written in 2016. The recent attacks in Sweden require a small update.
I have been thinking about my family’s slow migration about the globe for work and travel and was struck by how many physical locations we’ve stayed together or individually where a direct act of terror has occurred.
2005: Amman Radisson Hotel Jordan. Suicide bombers kill members of a Jordanian wedding party. The Johnson family stayed at this hotel in June 2004 after a visiting Petra, the Ancient city.
2006-2012: Beirut. The Johnson family lived in Beirut for six years from 2006 – 2012. During our time there over eight senior political officials were killed; two of them on the same bus route our young daughter regularly took to school. Another official was killed about half a mile from our home in a busy restaurant area we visited about once every three weeks.
2014. Beijing. The family moved to China during 2012. 2014. In March 2014 armed separatists stormed a railway station in the Chinese city of Kunming, killing 33 people and injuring 143.
2013 Westgate Kenya: A terrorist attack in the famous mall. We now split our time between Kenya and Stockholm and shop at this mall regularly.
2016: Istanbul: Terror attack at the airport. We have passed through this airport many times when we lived in the Middle East and for work. .
2016: Galleria, Kenya. A local Kenyan who had been hired by a group of terrorists tried to sneak past some explosives into the shopping centre. The family visits the mall regularly.
Paris: 2016: Like many we have walked along the Promenade des Anglais several times.
2017: March. Westminster. England. A man drives a car into pedestrians, kills 3 people outright and injures over twenty people. A fourth victim does later from injuries sustained in the attack. As a born and bred Londoner I've cross this bridge too many times to count and visited the houses of parliament often with friends and family.
2017: April. Stockholm. A" home grown" terrorist drives a truck into a main store located on Stockholm's busiest street killing four people and injuring fifteen people.
I met my swedish wife in the early 2000s and moved to Stockholm. We have one child together. The attack in Stockholm's most popular shopping area took place a a few short train stops from our home in Lindingo.We have visited the store where the attack took place too many times to count . During my entire time in Stockholm I don't think nine or ten consecutive days have passed without a member of my family walkings near or by the scene of the attack.
More and more I meet ordinary citizens who have also stayed at locations where an act of terror took place. The everyday commonality of these interactions reflecting how widespread and ineffectual the so-called war on terror continues to be, as well as the growing blow back against "well-intentioned" interventions by supposedly enlightened liberal democratic powers within far away countries
What can any sane individual make of that "We're fighting them over there so they don't hurt us at home," nonsense?
If this is peace I can only wonder what war feels like.
Speaking of war one only has to compare the scale and horror of the attacks I've mentioned to the mass carnage going on in Syria to gain a glimpse of the daily horror and psychological damage that has been routinely inflicted upon innocent Syrian civilians.
Note: I was born in London and grew up with the regular threat of IRA attacks. In 2015 the family spent a year in New York. We lived in New Jersey, directly across the Hudson River, from the remaining tower and the 911 monument.