Terrorism on Earth vs Terrorism in US Options

[MeanBastard]

My Sociology professor said something today that really made me think. As an aside to another point he was making, he said since 9/11 he's been waiting to see a stadium blown up on Sunday during a football game, or a suicide attack at a movie awards ceremony. Suddenly it dawned on me - we've been listening to and buying into these ideas about how terrorists hate our culture, and they're simply false. We've been eating up the idea that terrorism is somehow an American affliction that nobody else understands, and that notion is, again, simply false.

In Israel, one of your more likely causes of death is a man blowing himself up on a city bus you happen to be riding. That's a deliberate targetting of civilians. That could be argued as a hatred of culture. The buses have no real governmental importance, they're important to the average Joe.

In Spain, a subway was targetted. That subway has no real governmental importance, it was important to the average Jose who used it to commute every day. It was a deliberate and calculated targetting of civilians.

In Indonesia, a night club was bombed. Night clubs have no real governmental importance, they're a place for the average schmuck to unwind. Civilians were deliberately targetted during one of their weakest moments.

In Sudan, you can be killed just for what someone else thinks your religion might be. No questions asked, start digging your ditch. That represents nothing but pure hatred for a particular culture.

Militant Chechen separatists target Russian theaters, apartment buildings, and hospitals, all civilian targets of little governmental value. Perhaps most telling of all within the context of this contrast, Chechnya has ties to the same organizations that plotted against us.

Meanwhile, an American warship is targetted, and we call it terrorism. Governmentally important locations such as the WTC and the Pentagon are attacked, and we call it terrorism. A military contractor is killed, and we call it terrorism. While these acts are terrorism by the most literal possible interpretation of the dictionary, to call them such with no qualifiers is to downplay the true terrorism that takes place around the world on a daily basis, and to devalue the efforts taken against it.

The terrorists that target us target our military and governmentally important structures. These acts are political statements, statements made between two entities who lead groups of people. If they hated our culture, you would see many more attacks against America that are more like those that are predominant throughout the rest of the world. They would attack cultural landmarks and activities - the Statue of Liberty, football games, theaters, bus lines. They would attack things that only harm average citizens, with near complete disregard for government and military targets.

After all, those suicide bomber types of attack are the easiest and least costly on the terrorist's side of the table. Terrorists in America so far have gone out of their way to hatch intricate schemes of attacking the government that minimize civilian casualties as much as possible. If you don't believe that, I challenge you to devise a 9/11 that would kill fewer non-governmental civilians and have the same impact on our government. Don't bother if you're going to tell me bombs are the key, because as further evidence of their unwillingness to involve American citizens, these terrosts in their previous attacks on the WTC have already tried bombs.

While the war on terror is important to America, it's just as important to realize that it's important to the entire world as well, and that average Americans as a whole have so far come through it relatively unscathed in terms of direct physical violence being visited intentionally upon them. There exists, at this point, no reason to assume that the terrorists we're fighting want to destroy our culture or our individual lives. There's no reason to spend three years in fear of Lambert Field (of course I gotta throw in a little somethin' for my right wing fans ) being bombed. They have shown no urge to carry out those types of attacks against our country.

This is what distinguishes terrorist acts against America from terrorist acts against the rest of the world. This is why America's government is the most ready to lash out - it is directly under attack while its people are not - and why many of the other governments are seen as being softer on terrorism - those governments aren't under attack, while their people are. This shouldn't be taken as an indictment of other governments, because our own government was not overly concerned about the terrorist threat either until it manifested itself as violence against our government.

[*kryogenix*]

After all, those suicide bomber types of attack are the easiest and least costly on the terrorist's side of the table. Terrorists in America so far have gone out of their way to hatch intricate schemes of attacking the government that minimize civilian casualties as much as possible. If you don't believe that, I challenge you to devise a 9/11 that would kill fewer non-governmental civilians and have the same impact on our government. Don't bother if you're going to tell me bombs are the key, because as further evidence of their unwillingness to involve American citizens, these terrosts in their previous attacks on the WTC have already tried bombs.

What about large scale Bio/chemical attack? The whole anthrax thing shook us up a lot, a bigger scale thing like a gas attack in DC would be devastating.

[MeanBastard]

A bio attack would certainly kill citizens. Unless they contain it in less than an hour it would go into the air. Fly around. Enter people's head. dead.[/b][/font]

[sadolakced acid]

terrorists don't use gas... it's too conventional...

and the TV cameras don't make a good show....

terrorists do stuff fo the cameras and the newspapers. thats how they terrify people. a gas attack doesn't spread that much, no explosions.

well, depends on the gas.

but you can't get a lot of gas that easily...

besides, the terrorists don't want to use gas...

in fact i think they aren't going to attack the US right now... they want the world to hate us first.

[*mipadi*]

terrorists don't use gas... it's too conventional...

and the TV cameras don't make a good show....

terrorists do stuff fo the cameras and the newspapers.  thats how they terrify people. a gas attack doesn't spread that much, no explosions. 

well, depends on the gas. 

but you can't get a lot of gas that easily... 

besides, the terrorists don't want to use gas...

in fact i think they aren't going to attack the US right now...  they want the world to hate us first.

What about that gas attack in the Japanese subway in 1995? It definitely made headlines.

Anything that causes death and/or fear is a good component of terrorism. Gas itself is pretty fearsome, because you can't see it, can't smell it (in some cases), can't run from it very well, yet it kills you quite easily--and it can be used in any place with a ventilation system.

[ComradeRed]

The gas attack in Japanese subways in 1995 was from a religious cult that thought the end of the world was at hand, not a calculated effort to gain political ground.

[*mipadi*]

The gas attack in Japanese subways in 1995 was from a religious cult that thought the end of the world was at hand, not a calculated effort to gain political ground.

Not quite. Initially it was thought that the attack was meant to hasten the apocalypse, but it was later shown that the attack was meant to divert police attention from the investigation of Aum Shinrikyo.

At any rate, it is a terrorist incident, as it caused disruption of Japan's transportation system, and general fear in the population.

[technicolour]

omg mipadi, how old are you?

I was just a kid, 5 yrs old...I remember hearing my mom saying something about it..but seriously, how old are you?

[*mipadi*]

I'm 19 (although I don't see the significance of that right now).

[technicolour]

While the war on terror is important to America, it's just as important to realize that it's important to the entire world as well, and that average Americans as a whole have so far come through it relatively unscathed in terms of direct physical violence being visited intentionally upon them. There exists, at this point, no reason to assume that the terrorists we're fighting want to destroy our culture or our individual lives. There's no reason to spend three years in fear of Lambert Field (of course I gotta throw in a little somethin' for my right wing fans ) being bombed. They have shown no urge to carry out those types of attacks against our country.

Why not? Why aren't they attacking US and not our ally's?

no signifigance at all...

[zepfel]

ive got to point out here, that terrorists aren't attacking america because they dont need to. far less attacks have been carried out in america than other parts of the world (eg europe), and yet america is the country most on edge, most insistent that they will do something about it.

terrorism = an act to cause terror
ergo, terrorist's mission = achieved

[sadolakced acid]

well, the nerve gas attack wasn't actually shown. the aftermath was shown, but not the actual attack.


why was the WTC towers chosen for the attacks, instead of the empire state building which is much more known?

because there were two towers

the news cameras could tape and broadcast a plane flying into a building.

the attacks could have happenes simultaniously, but then the cameras wouldn't have been rolling.


2+2=5
i love big brother

[*kryogenix*]

well, the nerve gas attack wasn't actually shown.  the aftermath was shown, but not the actual attack.
why was the WTC towers chosen for the attacks, instead of the empire state building which is much more known? 

because there were two towers

the news cameras could tape and broadcast a plane flying into a building. 

the attacks could have happenes simultaniously, but then the cameras wouldn't have been rolling.
2+2=5
i love big brother

I don't think the Empire State Building is more well known than the Twin Towers.

[aera]

 

While the war on terror is important to America, it's just as important to realize that it's important to the entire world as well, and that average Americans as a whole have so far come through it relatively unscathed in terms of direct physical violence being visited intentionally upon them. There exists, at this point, no reason to assume that the terrorists we're fighting want to destroy our culture or our individual lives. There's no reason to spend three years in fear of Lambert Field (of course I gotta throw in a little somethin' for my right wing fans ) being bombed. They have shown no urge to carry out those types of attacks against our country.

notice how some our allies are getting attacked. spain. britain. there's a reason why they're attacking our allies. it's makes america fear them and try to do something about it. but we can't really do anything. after they finish with our allies, they'll be after us.

[*RiC3xBoy*]

notice how some our allies are getting attacked. spain. britain. there's a reason why they're attacking our allies. it's makes america fear them and try to do something about it. but we can't really do anything. after they finish with our allies, they'll be after us.

Actually, our government has image of fearing no one. As for the terrorist attack, they hit other countries simply because of the element of surprise. If they kept attacking us, they have more of a chance of gettin caught.

[ComradeRed]

Somehow, I doubt suicide bombers are afraid of getting caught.

[napoleon034]

Somehow, I doubt suicide bombers are afraid of getting caught.

he was talking about the people behind that attacks, not those who carry them out.

[xchrystizzle]

you're right- 9/11 was an attack on the world. the white house had information that Osama was planning to attack in america, not at america. sadly, the idiot aka bush decided to ignore that information stupid butthole

anyways, all these terrorist just want to establish terror and kill people! i doubt they give a fcuk about who or where, TERRORists just want to TERRORize people, and america was an easy-peasy target

[blogmee]

hi .
we say america is a easy target. but why?
because of the fact that america goes into trouble by itself. consider yhe case of afghanistan. america was the keen nurterer of the talibans during the russian war. but time was reversed. the talibans struck back.
so my point is that america should not play double game resulting in the loss of thousands of innocent people.

[*disco infiltrator*]

notice how some our allies are getting attacked. spain. britain. there's a reason why they're attacking our allies. it's makes america fear them and try to do something about it. but we can't really do anything. after they finish with our allies, they'll be after us.

..Britian's helping in the war, no? Obviously they're not too partial to them..at least I think they're helping. Even if they're not, we're in a war and occupying Middle Eastern countries. OBVIOUSLY Middle Eastern people aren't going to favor us and our allies over countries who aren't occupying them.

And we definitely do not give off a sense of "We're not afraid of you!" to other countries. We have a color coated system for high security for Pete's sake. Any little thing could scare us. Two birds in Chicago had the West Nile virus recently and they had multiple news reports here warning us. Our country gets scared easily. The reason we're fighting anyone who threatens us is not because we're not afraid of them, it's because we are. Those who want to attack us know that. They see we're scared. We're vulnerable because we're afraid of them.

[*RiC3xBoy*]

And we definitely do not give off a sense of "We're not afraid of you!" to other countries. We have a color coated system for high security for Pete's sake. Any little thing could scare us. Two birds in Chicago had the West Nile virus recently and they had multiple news reports here warning us. Our country gets scared easily. The reason we're fighting anyone who threatens us is not because we're not afraid of them, it's because we are. Those who want to attack us know that. They see we're scared. We're vulnerable because we're afraid of them.

The first sentence seems to contradict what you say after. Yes, we are afraid, but that is why we DO give off the sense of "We're not afraid of you".

[sadolakced acid]

^

you know how the bullies in school who call everyone gay are really the ones most insecure about thier sexuality?

yea.

the US is like the homophobic guy in middle school who's afraid he might be gay.

[*RiC3xBoy*]

^

you know how the bullies in school who call everyone gay are really the ones most insecure about thier sexuality?

yea.

the US is like the homophobic guy in middle school who's afraid he might be gay.

Yea, kinda like the movie, American Beauty.