Terrorism is a Tactic
Like most others, I was horrified at the magnitude and video graphic unfolding of the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath. We all shared a contempt for the villainous attackers and shook our heads in unison as to how anyone could claim justification for the perpetration of such heinous acts.
But as the resulting rhetoric of reprisal quickly developed, my natural instincts not to jump to conclusions without analyzing the evidence arose. We were told everything had changed and the world in general and America in particular would never be the same because evil terrorists committed to fanatic terrorism had committed the most horrible terrorist attack in American history. I did not reach that conclusion then and I do not agree with it now. The 9/11 attackers all died in the course of their criminal attacks. Their co-conspirators were also criminals who needed to be found and brought to justice, and America certainly needed to be more aware of its vulnerability to these criminals and take better actions to protect itself. The magnitude of the crime required a criminal justice and police protection response of sufficient dimension, but neither the world not America had really changed.
Terrorism is a tactic as old as mankind. Cave people were certainly aware of violence and fear. They early realized that the mere threat of violence actually seemed to create fear, and that fear could produce desired results just as good as violence could. Club the living daylights out of the other guy a few times and the next time he sees you coming with your club he might fall down and submit at the mere sight. I suspect terrorism was discovered before fire or the wheel.
The word itself, terror, is Latin for none other than "terror". The tactic has been used throughout history, originally by one individual against another and then by one group against another. Examples should not be necessary here; history books are full of them. Some terrorists are still loners - like the Unabomber. But most are groups, systematically using violent means to induce an intense state of fear in other groups, either to maintain their power or else to take power away from the other groups.
There is one way in which I might agree that 9/11 changed America. Since then, a systematic state of intense fear of violence by Muslims has been fomented in the American people by the Bush administration. This fear has held Bush in power and enabled him to achieve his pre-existing desire to invade Iraq and start America on a new Pax Americana.
But as the resulting rhetoric of reprisal quickly developed, my natural instincts not to jump to conclusions without analyzing the evidence arose. We were told everything had changed and the world in general and America in particular would never be the same because evil terrorists committed to fanatic terrorism had committed the most horrible terrorist attack in American history. I did not reach that conclusion then and I do not agree with it now. The 9/11 attackers all died in the course of their criminal attacks. Their co-conspirators were also criminals who needed to be found and brought to justice, and America certainly needed to be more aware of its vulnerability to these criminals and take better actions to protect itself. The magnitude of the crime required a criminal justice and police protection response of sufficient dimension, but neither the world not America had really changed.
Terrorism is a tactic as old as mankind. Cave people were certainly aware of violence and fear. They early realized that the mere threat of violence actually seemed to create fear, and that fear could produce desired results just as good as violence could. Club the living daylights out of the other guy a few times and the next time he sees you coming with your club he might fall down and submit at the mere sight. I suspect terrorism was discovered before fire or the wheel.
The word itself, terror, is Latin for none other than "terror". The tactic has been used throughout history, originally by one individual against another and then by one group against another. Examples should not be necessary here; history books are full of them. Some terrorists are still loners - like the Unabomber. But most are groups, systematically using violent means to induce an intense state of fear in other groups, either to maintain their power or else to take power away from the other groups.
There is one way in which I might agree that 9/11 changed America. Since then, a systematic state of intense fear of violence by Muslims has been fomented in the American people by the Bush administration. This fear has held Bush in power and enabled him to achieve his pre-existing desire to invade Iraq and start America on a new Pax Americana.
posted by Tom Blake | 2:26 PM
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