UK tragedy calls for joint anti- terror efforts
At least 22 people were killed and 59 injured in a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena, police confirmed. Thousands of people were at the venue for a concert by American singer Ariana Grande when the explosion occurred, and the death toll may rise.
UK police have been treating the attack as a “terrorist incident,” and possibly a suicide bombing, according to officials. If confirmed, it would be the most serious terror attack in Britain since the series of explosions on London transport in 2005.
Attacking innocent concert- goers is unconscionable. We see that time and again, busy spots in Europe, from railway stations, subways, arenas to markets, have been targeted by these evil attacks and the lives of many Europeans have been overshadowed.
A core reason that the UK voted to leave the EU last year was to lower the risk of terror attacks by restricting the inflow of immigrants. However, the future split from the EU has not brought the UK security.
The UK ranks at the top of Europe in terms of its security capabilities. It is always viewed as one of the world’s safest places. But the latest explosion shows that nowhere is entirely safe from terrorism.
We live in an era when terrorism is prevalent and the international community appears unable to do anything about it. We enjoy freedom; our privacy is valued, and technology empowers mankind, but this sows the seeds for the spread of terror atrocities.
Security measures, while they cost enormous human resources and money, are useful to some extent. Nonetheless, they are imperfect measures and cannot deter all terrorists.
When hatred emerges, extremism leads some into terrorist killings. The boundary between traditional terrorism based on political hatred and this type of lone- wolf terrorism that aims at revenge against society has become blurred. With the help of the Internet, terrorism is finding fertile soil to grow.
For the foreseeable future, human- ity will have to face the daunting challenge of combating terrorism. There are other challenges before us, but counter- terrorism is the most urgent.
Unfortunately, the international community has yet to reach consensus on how to fight terrorism. The world can convene an international conference on climate change, but there is no such mechanism to support an anti- terrorism mission. There are still disagreements over the definition of terrorism, let alone an international collaboration effort on defeating it. In quite a few countries, the threat of terrorism is still underestimated.
Humanity is now at a crossroads in fighting terrorism; the consequence of its spread will be devastating damage. Every government needs to be mobilized to form a strong common community to deal with terrorism.
The UK ranks at the top of Europe in terms of its security capabilities. It is always viewed as one of the world’s safest places.