Terrorism is not new and it was certainly not a twenty-first century invention.
Our collective reactions to acts of terrorism are, in part, what defines the success of the terrorist act itself. Often, we don’t do too well.
The Indonesian anti-terrorism squad killed Noordin Top, the most wanted terrorist in Indonesia last Thursday.
This was an effective response to an act of terrorism. The Indonesian government near seamlessly controlled the messaging of this raid to prevent it from being tied-in to broad themes of religion, Islam, the West or even nationalism (Noordin Top is Malaysian-born). This was a personalized campaign on the specific target of Noordin Top himself, and even led to the Chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) offering the quoted title of this post.
This is what the Bush administration failed to do after September 11, 2001. Instead of focusing on the precise and criminal personality of Osama Bin Laden, Bush expanded to scope of the retaliation into two full-blown hot wars and a global debate over what America means to the world. The messaging was lost over what this was really all about.
The praise of the Indonesian government, and even the police, is well deserved and promising.
By controlling the message, Noordin Top is not remembered as a martyr but as a crook and a murderer.
