Expanding meanings of terrorism

After seeing several nations unilaterally taking to the seas to protect their respective merchant ships from being attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia, the United Nations Security Council finally voted unanimously to give those nations authority to do so.

Not only those nations that now have warships in the Gulf of Aden but any other nation as well that might want to send armed forces to protect their ships transitting through these dangerous waters.

The UN resolution allows not only international warships to protect their shipping when attacked but, more importantly, allows armed attacks by sea and by air on any pirate bases that may be found on land in Somalia.

This means that the initial drawback in the protective efforts of the foreign navies now in the Gulf of Aden -- that of limiting their defensive action to international waters for fear of intruding into Somalian sovereign space -- has been effectively wiped out.

Now, international forces can carry out attacks on Somalian territory provided these are carried out in pursuit of, or intended to eliminate, the Somalian pirates who now operate up and down the coast of that country.

While the UN resolution has been very careful not to label piracy by any other name, such as terrorism, this criminal act in the high seas should be regarded, and dealt with, as if it were.

In this day and age, when violence has become the preferred mode of sending a message, when such violence harbors no regard for the guilt or innocence of the victims, making fine distinctions only work to the benefit of the savage perpetrators.

Any act of senseless violence, especially that which is carried out with no other motive than to inflict the highest number of casualties or cause as much damage, is hardly distinguishable anymore from terrorism.

As they often say, that if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, then it must be a duck, then so must acts of piracy be likened to acts of terrorism and be dealt with in the same manner.

This world is now very close to spiralling out of control, largely because of that phenomenon called political correctness which allows some people to behave against all concepts of civilized order and yet get treated with kids' gloves because civilized society says so.

Look at what is happening in Greece. While the death of that young man is condemnable and justice demands that the culprits be punished, the ensuing anarchy is being allowed to rip the country apart because the authorities fear initiating a more forceful crackdown on rioters.

The Greek rioters are no longer after justice for the death of that youngster, nor are they really fired by the need for urgent reforms. They are now being consumed by the destructive impulse of hooliganism.

It is sad and ironic because it is from Greece that democracy sprung to infect the world with its practical and modern approach to governing increasingly large societies. It is sad and ironic because justice has been hijacked to cripple legitimate authority.

Mob rule is no different from piracy, and most certainly comes very close to the ever expanding definition of terrorism.

Unless the world recognizes these things for what they are, preferring to be limp-wristed about them by political correctness, the end cannot be very far.