Terrorism Unlimited: Duty, Honour and Country

The Jakarta bombings by suspected JI militants demonstrate the inherent insecurity in a globalised world. Even as the Singapore Armed Forces moves towards a 3G or 3.5G military, terrorists, anarchists and people who believe in making use of violent force against innocents to make a political statement and to agitate for their version of a new world will do their dastardly deeds.

Not Another Armchair Observer
As an ex-reservist conscript in the Singapore Armed Forces, my comments on the state of terrorism is not based on my armchair perspective. I am not just a writer who merely makes use of words to express his two cents of commentary on the state of affairs that he reads about. My comments stem from serving on the front line in our ongoing operations against terrorism twice during my reservist days. It is not just a case of seeing how the JW Mariott and Ritz Carlton in Jakarta get attacked and feeling sorry for the losses suffered by innocents. It is the awareness that I could have easily been one of the targets by virtue of serving the Singapore Armed Forces in its security operations to defend key installations against the risk of terrorism and related attacks.

How does one fight an enemy who is willing to die for their cause?
One of the things that ever occurred to me was how I was to fight against someone who was willing to strap explosives to himself and to detonate them sending himself and whoever was in his vicinity into the next world?

Suicide bombers appear to be the weapon of choice for extremist groups. When you are not physically big enough to outfight your opponent using conventional methods because he has more troops, military hardware and finances, you take him on using unconventional methods that he cannot defend himself against successfully.

How do you defend against someone who is willing to kill himself to get to you?

We hear of news stories about western forces shooting unarmed civilians who are in vehicles rushing towards military checkpoints without slowing down. This is because part of the rules of engagement implemented to protect the soldiers against potential suicide car bombs would be to stop the attackers by shooting the car and the occupants before they get close enough to detonate their car.

During my reservist doing operations duty in protecting key installations, I recall our instructors telling us that the rules of engagement allowed us to shoot to stop the attacker. 5.56mm rounds going into a human body will stop it quickly if accurately placed.

The trick of course was to identify who the attacker was in time to stop him/her before he/she detonates his explosive. Outdrawing someone who is trying to raise a firearm and throw something at you is one thing. Being able to identify and target someone who is about to trigger a bomb before it explodes is another.

Terrorism Unlimited
The world has changed. Terrorism is indeed a real world problem we have to deal with. Fighting an unconventional war against potential aggressor(s) who do not wear uniforms and use conventional weapons is not easy. I am glad to have had the experience of being at the front-line in defending the country by active patrols keeping key installations safe. I also thank God that nothing happened during the time my unit and my brother-in-arms were on duty.

I respect the men and women who are even now protecting us against the potential aggressor(s) who may want to kill innocents as a political statement or to advance their cause.

I hope that the world will become safer for my 1 year + old daughter but know that it will only get more dangerous with time.

The price of security is constant vigilance.

Majullah Singapura.