Fear Of Terrorists Will Only Immobilise Us As A People - And Stop Us Fighting Back Ferociously When Attacked By Them

Somehow, elements of the controversy generated by the presence in Ghana, of the two ex-Guantanamo Bay U.S. military prison detainees, Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby and Mahmaud Umar bin Atef, remind one of the naïveté of those who thought that by appeasing Germany's Adolf Hitler, Europe would be able to avoid war on a large scale.

Alas, in that particular instance, the policy of appeasement, failed miserably - and in the end it took an allied invasion of Europe by U.S. military forces, U.K. and British Commonwealth forces, as well as  European forces from the European nations opposed to Adolf  Hitler, to defeat Hitler and his axis power allies in the Second World War.

And so it is with terrorists. Let no Ghanaian think that terrorists will spare any intended victim of theirs - simply because those intended victims went out of their way to avoid causing terrorists any offence.

Instead of turning the issue of the acceptance by the government of Ghana, of a request from the U.S. administration to give temporary refuge to the two ex-Guantanamo Bay U.S. military prison detainees, into a political football, Ghanaians must rather focus on finding practical ways in which as a people - and on an individual level - we can somehow insulate our country from the scourge of global terrorism.

Why are we acting as if terrorists are rational beings, who will spare our country from being attacked, because we are well-behaved towards them - and that somehow if the government had refused to accept to take in ex-Guantanamo Bay U.S. military prison detainees, when requested to do so by the American government, it would have spared Ghana from ever being attacked by Islamist extremists?

When Islamist extremists decide to target their victims, it matters not a whit to them, what collateral damage  is caused - in terms of the deaths of innocent people and damage to property - when setting off bombs and shooting their victims.

We must understand clearly that in the fight against global terrorism, we are all in the frontline trenches together - and can be killed by those murderous and unhinged-monsters at any given time: and in any location around the world.

The plain truth, is that even fair-minded and moderate Muslims, Christains,  Buddhists, etc., etc., all face possible death from those deranged minds, when they strike during terrorist attacks.

It is said that cowards die many times before their deaths. In any case, one has only one life - so one must live it to the full: instead of constantly living in fear because one fears potential terrorist attacks.

If we want to win the fight against global terrorism, in our part of the world, we must not allow terrorists to have the satisfaction of thinking that they can immobilise our people and our country simply through fear of being attacked by them.

Far better to show them, by continuing to lead our normal lives, and refusing to be cowed by them, that we fear them not - and utterly despise their cowardice. Let us all be watchful at all material times - and report suspicious characters to the authorities.

And instead of allowing fear of terrorists to divide us, let us rather unite, and stand up to them together. A policy of appeasement has never worked with irrational people who use murder and egregious violence as weapons to terrorise society - in order to impose their views on others.

When they finally get the message that we will not allow our nation and its people to be enslaved by them, regardless of the harm they cause, we shall finally be rid of them. Forever.

Fear of terrorists will only immobilise us as a people - and stop us from fighting back ferociously when attacked by them. Let us stand up to all terrorists - whatever their creed or ideology.