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Killing The Idea Of Terrorism
Some clever speechwriter in Washington called it the War on Terror, noting that there are ongoing wars such as the War on Drugs, War on Obesity and numerous other wars being more quietly fought out of Washington. Labeling terrorism a war, it was thought, would make it legitimate in the minds of many Americans. It must have, because despite no defeats of Muslim armies on the battlefield, no hordes of Muslims surrendering to our army, not one Muslim anywhere renouncing his commitment to terrorism, we continue to fight these wars. What’s a person to do? How will we ever know when we’ve won? But this is not new, this terrorism war. Throughout recorded history there have been people unhappy about something going on in their own countries, and willing to kill other people or to die, themselves, to show opposition. What it has always been about is an attempt to change other people’s minds about thoughts or actions with which someone doesn’t agree. Terrorism historically has religious roots. The Crusades were technically a religious war of terrorism against Muslims, to get them to stop worshipping a “false” God. In the first century, during the Roman occupation of the Middle East, there was a Jewish group of terrorists called Sicari who used short daggers to kill Romans and other Jews they thought were not being Jewish enough or were sympathetic to the Romans. Their killings took place in daylight, with witnesses around, in order to terrorize other Jews so that they did not support the Roman occupation. In India, terrorists were called Thugees, who strangled their victims. (This is the origin of the word Thug). They committed their acts of terrorism on 1 million victims, it is said, from the 7th through the 19th century. After World War II, terrorist groups sprang up in the Middle East, called the Palestine Liberation Organization, in Germany the Red Army Faction, in Italy the Italian Red Brigades and in Ireland, the IRA. Many others sprouted all over the world, and are causing trouble till this day. But they cause trouble in that immediate country, or group of countries, and those countries are dealing with their own terrorists in their own way. America’s terrorism problem is more like that which was created during the Crusades, when the Christians went out looking for Muslims in order to change their minds about how they were living their lives and what God they were worshipping. It wasn’t called Regime Change or Nation Building back then. It is, now, and personally, I don’t think it’s worth the life of one American so that we can color the map of any country “Democratic.” Ask the parents of a dead American soldier what they think about this. Please don’t ask our government. They have their own agenda. How have terrorists been dealt with, from the First Century till now? With few exceptions, armies were not fielded to exterminate terrorists, mostly because the groups or governments were smart enough to realize that you cannot kill an idea, which terrorism is. It’s a crummy idea, but, unfortunately, when someone decides to embrace the use of terrorism to change things, they don’t automatically turn purple, so you can’t wage a war against all the purple people you can find. Certainly, sending armies to root out and kill all the terrorists in a country or region is doomed to fail, because that idea knows no boundaries drawn on a map. The only way you can know that a person is a terrorist is if he points a rifle at you, or plants and explodes a bomb, thereby turning an idea into action. Targeting all people with a Muslim sounding name won’t work because the next most vicious terrorist act may be committed by a tall, blonde, blue eyed Swede, whose mind was infected with the terror virus. Think American Timothy McVeigh. Besides, embarking on the road to limited extermination inevitably takes you down the road to complete extermination, as a way of completely eradicating terrorism from the world. That means killing everyone harboring an idea different from yours, or ours, and who are willing to kill or die for it. There are billions of Muslims in the world, and very few of them are terrorists. Should we kill them all, if we could? Of course not, but limited extermination does seem to be the strategy of our Peace President and his Democrat congress. Unfortunately, intelligence about how you attain peace and exterminate terror and terrorists did not go along with Mr. Obama’s Nobel Prize, and he takes pride in being called a War President. There should be a Users Manual going along with the Peace Prize. I believe the only way you win this war is by beating a lousy idea with a good one. Certainly we must protect ourselves by catching or killing anyone bent on doing us harm, but we must simultaneously relocate that good idea that was used in 1776 to create the most amazing country the world has ever seen. A central feature of our infant country was to avoid “going abroad to find dragons to slay,” which one of our Founders cautioned against. That’s a good place to start. If you can’t beat them, have them want to join us in enjoying life, not destroying it, or, at the very least, leaving us alone. Is this possible? I don’t know. I do know the only impossible things are the ones you don’t start, and those Americans among us who think this is a naïve idea will have many reasons to sit still and do nothing. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com A.Sanford writes for the conservative web site WWW.JIPW.com/ His articles deal with political hypocrisy, government corruption, hidden political agendas and an assortment of other political misdeeds, both domestic and international. |
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