“Everybody’s worried about stopping
terrorism. Well, there’s a really easy way: stop participating in it.”
–Noam Chomsky, Power and Terror – 2002.
What begun as a popular phenomenon under the benevolent and courageous title of “The War against Terror” has rarely ever been questioned, What is this phenomenon and what has created of the world we know today? Many figures were released after the September 11 bombing of 2001. Reportedly, 2,996 individuals were killed and 6,000 were left injured. What was not brought to the forefront for the International community to see was that in the subsequent invasion of Iraq by the troops of the US, 7,500 civilians lost their lives. US’ Drone Strike Programme was released under the premise that terrorist groups will be target killed but in 2012 alone, 236 civilians lost their lives in these attacks. The ill-treatment of prisoners at the detention centres of Guantanamo, in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Iraq is not much hidden from the public as well. Pakistani scientist, Dr. Afia Siddiqui, who is serving86-year imprisonment in a US prison cell, contracted cancer and allegedly became pregnant as a result of sexual abuse during her confinement. When the US forces invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, they came with the promise of establishing peaceful and democratic regimes in these areas. However, today, war torn Iraq has been left under the repressive regime of the IS. What should be questioned today is that who is the real terrorist? Who has taken more lives, violated human rights time and again and persecuted innocent civilians? All of us know the answer but we’re far too reluctant to admit it.