COMMENT: Terrorism - Here To Stay

By Christopher Lee, Defence Analyst

The Security Level has been reduced from Critical (attack imminent) to Severe.

Severe means: an attack is highly likely. It was Severe at the time of Westminster and Manchester.

An attack was, on both days, highly likely, and highly likely became the reality of the day and that’s how it’s going to be.

It only takes one lonely, disillusioned guy with a carving knife or bomb-making instructions to put on the sparking waistcoat or carry the bag and the thin red line between Severe and Critical snaps.

In times gone by, foreigners were blamed, yet all attacks in the United Kingdom since the nine against Queen Victoria have been homegrown. 

Talk of an Islamic State team on the move is best left to the hold-your-breadth TV scriptwriters. A typical bomber is not like that. 

The modern bomber is a man in his early 20s. Educated, jobless, he is second-generation Middle Eastern and hates the way his family tacitly thanks the British for taking them in and, therefore, despises the country's system.

Chunks of streets in Britain are full of people who carry the traditions and names of the countries their grandparents escaped but are subconsciously long-age refugees. 

They belong in the UK by endeavour, courtesies and patronage and long to walk freely in their own identities as Kuwaitis or Libyans and ultimately in their own countries.

Identity is the most important of the five dignities (identity, independence, future, past and expression) and it is the only one that needs no explanation.

Without identity a man is incomplete and so he is vulnerable to suggestions that he is patronised, mocked and never to be accepted unless in the modern suburban ghetto.

From this comes the truth of modern terrorism.

Those who turn to terrorism achieve a status in their own heads and the eyes of like-minded thinkers.

Status is the genie of identity and status has no replacement — which is why, for example, dissident IRA members continue murdering long after peace agreements.

There is no status in peace for the extreme hoodlum.

The modern Islamist terrorist, whatever his or her level, is a mixture of the above and most of all takes refuge in what they believe is truth - without an understanding that truth is only an expression of reality.

(The law hints: he who argues the most convincing case for reality does not necessarily reveal the truth of an affair.)

Thus terrorism will continue into the next generation. 

So whatever the Security State, the act of terrorism that began with the failure but feelgood factor of the Crusades will continue.

The modern cause of terrorist atrocity is identity. It is now part of the British way of life and so, too, is terrorism.

The British scare as easy as anyone but they do not empty the pubs, stop shopping, miss cup finals, clog up Bank Holidays or even bother to learn the bomber’s name.

Whatever the Security Status the average Brit with a history of wars and calamities will be appalled to hear 22 killed but deep down the subconscious will be saying 'Not Many Dead'.

That is the truth, the misinterpreted expression of reality.

The British live with it and it is why the next terrorist attack will be a raw movie for 12 hours, then just another repeat.

Terrorism is just that: grim, but in these islands, just an old movie.

:: Hear more from our Defence Analyst Christopher Lee on Sitrep, the only radio programme devoted to discussing matters of defence and security, on Forces Radio (BFBS).

Joining him this week are Dr Karin von Hippel, Director-General of RUSI, Lord Dannatt, former Chief of the General Staff, Mary FitzGerald, writer and researcher on Libya, and Kayam Iqbal, a former British soldier and a Muslim from Manchester who works with the MoD tackling extremism. To listen head here. To download, click here.