State of Security: A PSA

I’ve always been fond of Jordan’s security forces and I will continue to be despite the latest events. They have thwarted many more threats than we can possibly imagine. Their successes are usually private and their failures public.

I’ve always been vocal and proud of the security forces and the security they provided, it was an aspect of Jordan one could be proud of when telling others. But here is the key phrase that everyone should remember: Everything is Relative. These attacks cannot be thrown out of context, especially if that context contains words like “Middle” and “East”, “Israel” and “Iraq” and “Lebanon” and “Saudi Arabia” and so on and so forth. Jordan, sandwiched in the middle of chaos, in the middle of these kinds of attacks on all our borders: east, west, north and south. And considering the kingdom’s historical and post-modern pro-western stance, it’s a blessing in disguise that Jordan has managed to avoid any of these attacks up until now. Everything is relative and with a target as big as Jordan; the holy grail of a terrorist attack, it’s not exactly luck that has helped us. It was and will continue to be our security forces.

The most powerful nation in the world. The nation that has only two land borders with friendly nations. The nation with the biggest defense system in the world. This nation suffered 3,000 losses on September 11th. Everything is relative. This is a public service announcement.

The problem with Jordan is it’s nature. Jordan is an Arabian melting pot. It rejects no one and accepts everyone. It is the country that opens its borders to any and all Arab countries every time there is a war. Be it Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Kuwait. Jordan hosts thousands and thousands of its fellow Arabs when other Arab countries turn off the lights and pretend their not home. Everything is relative.

And this has been a problem. Because out of the thousands you let in, all it takes is one and in this case four, to do something. The reason these attacks occur is simply to create fear. These people didn’t expect to bring down Jordan or overthrow Jordan or destroy these hotels. At best they expected a couple of victims, the maximum number of hotel occupants being the number.

What they wanted was fear. What they wanted was for a Jordanian to feel unsafe in a hotel, to feel unsafe in a public place. To blame the government or the King, to overthrow them. They expected to tarnish Jordan’s good name with blood.

What they didn’t expect was Jordanians. What they didn’t expect was the Jordanians would rally behind their country, their King, their people, and turn their anger towards the culprits themselves. What they didn’t expect was the fact that Jordanians are made of a heart, mind and soul that is virtually unbreakable, unbendable, unshakable, unstoppable. What they didn’t expect were protesters and marches and rallies, against them.

As for their mastermind, Zarqawi is not Jordanian (he isn’t even from Zarqa he’s actually from mafraq!). Zarqawi has been gone too long. Zarqawi has forgotten who Jordanians are and what their made of. So when thousands take to the streets to protest him, when millions are full of anger and hatred towards him, when they make their voices heard this loud…well I think Zarqawi is about to get a memory jolt.

This is a Public Service Announcement so to the media, especially the western media, stop saying “Jordanian Terrorist”! It is an insult to all Jordanians, to the victims and their families who survive them and who will never really survive them.

And to the Jordanian Security, I have not lost faith in you and nor have all these people who stayed in Jordan, who marched, who prayed, who lit candles everywhere around the world, who stayed up late at night Blogging and teaching the world about the Jordanian spirit. Because your successes are private and your failures are public and the odds are against you, the odds are against us. Because everything is relative. But most of all, most of all, because you are Jordanians and in knowing a little about what we’re made of we have some idea of your made of. So Keep On!

Love,
A Jordanian