It's a lovely idiom - It will come back to bite you - although these days, a more common expression is unintended consequences, which is subtly different. When something comes back to bite you, it's painful, whereas an unintended consequence can be positive as well as negative. I also like Peter Senge's quote: Today's problems come from yesterday's "solutions". So what's got me thinking on this tack today? Well it's the news less than 48 hours ago of the carnage in Paris where innocent people were slaughtered, apparently as an act of retribution by Islamic State (IS). Although this abhorrent act hit the headlines, it was regrettably just one of many examples of inexplicable mass killings and when the immediate and understandable response of abject horror becomes less dominant, the obvious question has to be asked - Why? Politicians never seem to dwell on the why, but instead, what should be the immediate actions to be taken. I suppose that's understandable because leaders need to be seen to be decisive.
François Hollande described the events as 'an act of war' but what does that mean and what action will be taken? It is not a war in the conventional sense because there are no rules of engagement, or disengagement, with a terrorist group such as IS. History has taught us that quick-fix "solutions", like intensifying the bombing of enemy territories in Iraq and Syria, could harden attitudes, make IS recruitment of disaffected young Europeans easier and lead to very negative unintended consequences, like what has just happened in Paris.
The purpose of this post is not to offer solutions but rather to warn against knee-jerk reactions because, in my opinion, it is the past impulsiveness of current leaders and their predecessors that has played a big part in the instability faced by the global community. It is important to take the time to understand why it happened, before deciding what has to be done and how it can be achieved. The current military strategy, whatever that is, doesn't seem to be leading to desirable results. My final quote to end this post comes from Albert Einstein. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
