“Now we are face to face once again with a period of heightened peril. The risks are great, the burdens heavy and the problems incapable of swift or lasting solution.”
No one could’ve guessed the magnitude of former U.S. president, John F. Kennedy’s words from Nov. 18 1961, would hold on the eve of their 54th anniversary.
We watched in horror as a sickening plot of multiple suicide bombs and shootings spanning over two days, unfolded in Paris, Baghdad and Beirut, claimed the lives of 198 people on Nov. 13.
Fuelled by emotion and a thirst for vengeance, France President Francois Hollande saw the actions of ISIS as a declaration of war and vowed the recoil from France would be ruthless.
Soon after the carnage began, U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron emerged with rhetoric supporting their French allies.
They claimed the violence not only targeted France but also their universal values of peace, tolerance and liberty, while also dedicating a larger military presence to the fight against ISIS.
Claims of extremist distaste for freedom have echoed since the Sept. 11 attacks over 10 years ago, sprouting the War on Terror, the military revenge mentality and the use of fear tactics to promote hate and racism.
For Canada, this aggression only adds to the turmoil dividing our nation over Syrian refugees and ongoing niqab controversies, leaving Prime Minister Trudeau with nothing but complex decisions.
Two of his major campaign promises have been compromised less than a month after his election and his decisions regarding these issues are sure to be controversial regardless of his stance.
However, to revoke his vows of allowing Syrian refugees into Canada and pulling Canadians out of the fight against ISIS, would only play into the hands of their ideology.
We’ve already seen the distrust of the government towards Canadians with bill C-51, the increase of hate amongst the population and the growth of Islamophobia.
Extremists don’t look to intimidate on the battlefield. Rather, they exploit the media to infect the world with paranoia, resulting in mental decay so we wind up frightened, suspicious and ultimately defeated by hopelessness.
They use cerebral assassination to carefully plot their every move and watch us turn on each other using the oldest trick in the book-divide and conquer.
The inability to defeat ideologies in the physical world creates dangerous adversaries of any social, political or spiritual extremist, no matter where they sit on the spectrum.
This war can’t be won with the conventional strategy of sheer firepower and political muscle, guns and missiles won’t kill what can’t be killed.
Conquering this enemy with the planet intact and preventing our future from eerily shadows George Orwell’s 1984, will be determined by the population’s ability to unite during arguably one of the darkest periods of recorded history.
We as individuals must collectively enter this mental chess game to cast off the infection of hate, paranoia, suspicion and fear plaguing society today.
Refuse to allow their exploitation of the media to disconnect you, refuse to be contaminated by hate and their attempts to convince you, this hate is justified because aspects of their culture are shared with others.
When we look back at these dark times, we will be measured by our courage of maintaining hope, while we braved the depths of hell.
Because, in the words of the late Malcolm X, a man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.