A wise man once told me that the world is like a piece of cloth. You stretch it only so much before it tears apart. After learning about the attack in Nice last night, I felt like the fabric of our world is being torn to shreds.
Tomorrow night, I will sing for the victims of Orlando. It is only one month since the nightclub attack (and some argue that it was not a terrorist attack), and there have been multiple terrorist incidents somewhere in the world every day since. Looking at the world from a distance, I have to conclude that the world is at war, every incident another renting of the fabric. It has been said that we are in the middle of World War III, and it must be true.
Targeted counterattack isn’t feasible, because the enemy is not your typical bricks and mortar outfit. Intelligence has not stopped the attacks. The enemy has worked around the intelligence. There seem to be no viable options; only a sense of bloodlust and a desire to retaliate that leads to the most extreme and inhumane considerations, torture and tactics that are anathema. That is, until there is nothing else.
Evan Sarzin is the author of Hard Bop Piano and Bud Powell published by Gerard & Sarzin Music Publishing. He writes and publishes Revolted Colonies (http://revoltedcolonies.com).