Third world war is underway
Challenge is to win conflict while balancing defence and security with democratic freedoms
Sunday morning, June 4/17, Manchester, UK:
While I was attending a conference at the University of Manchester this past week, I walked by a building named after Alan Turing, the famous mathematician credited with inventing the computer and breaking the German Enigma Code in the Second World War. While persecuted to the point of suicide for his homosexuality, he was not recognized with a formal apology by the British government until 2009.
It is precisely people with the brilliance and determination of Turing who will be necessary in the effort to find new approaches to countering the kind of terrorism I woke up to this morning when I turned on my television. Six members of the public dead, with another announced as having expired, as I watched the news of the terrorist attack on London Bridge last night.
Forty-eight people injured they say, many in critical condition. The political parties have suspended national campaigning for the coming election June 8, but have insisted it not be delayed and have implored citizens to come out and vote in defiance of the terrorists trying to undermine democratic freedoms like voting.
When my mother was a child in Manchester during the second World War, her house was bombed during the Christmas holidays, and while she and her family were not home that day, she wasn’t able to return to get her Christmas presents, her prized stamp collection, and more.
But my mother’s family somehow kept calm and carried on, like so many other Britons during the Blitz. In fact, “Keep calm and carry on” became an unofficial motto for the country, and is being invoked again by many authorities and members of the public interviewed on television about the London attack.
This sense of calmness and carrying on was something I experienced when I arrived in Manchester a few days ago. Not only that, but given that the bombing which saw 22 killed here just a few weeks ago, I was surprised by how friendly and welcoming everyone was trying to be — from the customs agents at the airport to the police, and many others. They of course realize most people aren’t terrorists despite the critical alert throughout Britain.
But today something is different. There’s a terrible sadness in the air.
Yes, it’s still calmness and carrying on, but now with a sad resignation, as if we were back in the days of the Blitz.
This is a new kind of war however, and old methods of defence aren’t working — not the security measures, not the anti-radicalization initiatives, and certainly not attempts to get British Muslims to report members of their own community whom they might suspect. There’s not much to make them feel secure about such a process when they have little confidence in a system which seems to privilege a race, a religion — a whole class that is not theirs.
Most of this modern terrorism has so far victimized Muslims themselves — witness Iraq, Syria — so it comes as a shock when these incidents happen here, and when people find out, as in the case in the Manchester bombing, it was a suspect born and bred in Britain. Suddenly we are in our own domestic terrorist war here, and despite security measures we seem unprepared for it. Neither can we ever be, really, when the measures taken belong to those of another era.
To get back to Turing, something on the level of his innovation and toiling dedication is going to be necessary to defeat terrorism. Britain has done it before and should be capable of doing it again.
The Nazi terrors were dealt with, not just by the few to whom so much was owed by so many, but by radar, and the home front with their black-out curtains, dimmed headlights, and mixed-up road signs to confuse the enemy. They were so convinced there would be an invasion, my father’s RCAF squadron, stationed in southern England and short on supplies, were issued baseball bats to beat off German paratroopers.
Such is the kind of nationwide effort, and Alan Turing level of brilliance, to fight this new kind of war. We thought World War 3 would be nuclear, but it’s not — and make no mistake, WW 3 is now the war we are fighting.
The great challenge will be to win the conflict while balancing defence and security with democratic freedom, religious tolerance and respect for all citizens.
In short, we must make a special effort to, again, keep calm and carry on.
Richard Hancox is Associate Professor, Communication Studies Department, Concordia University. He is a former Islander and UPEI graduate. His father, Bill Hancox, was a former Guardian publisher and later CEO of Confederation Centre. His mother, Mary, was a war bride from Manchester. They met while Bill was stationed with the RCAF in southern England during the Second World War.