I presume you have all read the article which describes the problem of defining terrorism at: http://pnews.org/art/art.shtml ?
You all remember our former president, Bill Clinton, who wasn't half bad in the brains department when compared to the present occupant of the white house, but the present occupant is less disposed to soiling the carpet. I ask if you remember him, because there is the disease of short term memory loss in this country which tends to forget how we get to where we're at.
President Clinton, as the Commander in Chief, ordered the Armed Forces to strike at "terrorist" facilities in Afghanistan and the Sudan when he was in office because he claimed there was an imminent threat to our national security. That is another one of those terribly difficult to define concepts.
The target wasn't men, women and children; it was "terror." It wasn't "human" after all, it was was a concept. It was Muslims with bad breath and ugly long beards and a very bad attitude. And we struck back at terrorism. Therefore our mission was clear. The president ordered a clear mission-worthy strike at a network of radical groups affiliated with and funded by Osama bin Ladin. It was clear then as it is now to this administration that the preeminent organizer and financier of international terrorism in the world is Usama bin Laden.
They said that these people come from many different places. They come from everywhere. But, they share several things in common however, besides their bad breath. They're all Muslims and they all "hate democracy". They have a "fanatical glorification of violence", and they have "distorted their religion" to justify the murdering of innocents. We, on the other hand, only kill innocents _innocently_ and accidentally, because we make every effort to minimize the killing of innocents because "we're civilized and they are not" -- sayeth lord Clinton and lord Bush...........
The party line is: "They have made the United States their adversary precisely because of what we stand for and what we stand against."
We justify our accusations against Bin Ladin with a quote from him where he vowed to wage war against America, saying, and I quote, "We do not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians. They're all targets."
There is no debate about evil. It is everywhere. The "terrorists" who murder innocents and cause despair are all evil. Those who bombed the Twin Towers are evil. The terrorists who kill and bomb and maim are all evil. I remember only too well, not only the U.S.S. Cole which killed 17 Navy sailors, but the 12 Americans and nearly 300 Kenyans and Tanzanians lost their lives, and another 5,000 were wounded, when our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were bombed. I remember the 17,000 who lost their lives in the War in Lebanon, much of it, indiscriminate bombing by Israel (sorry but it is true and as much as I would like to support Israel I can't in good conscience over this). And, I remember the slaughter of Iraqi soldiers running away from the front who were straffed and murdered by our air force. All these memories are fresh in my memory. All of it is evil.
We cannot continue to wage war by making them martyrs and helping to breed more violence with what we define here in this country as their "terrorism".
Instead of building the machinery of war, some of those funds should go into building the machinery of peace and establishing a means to protect the safety of our citizens.
Our president Bill ordered the United States to carry out simultaneous strikes against terrorist facilities and infrastructure in Afghanistan. He claimed that bin Ladin network infrastructure was targeted and he also attacked a factory in the Sudan. What was in that factory? Pharmaceuticals for the people.
It is an endless cycle of violence. And some day it will be looked back on as a sorry chapter in human devolution.
TheGolem
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