"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'"
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 3
If there has been one word in 21st century discourse - one word which in its over and mis-use has caused more pain, more suffering, and brought more misunderstanding to the minds of the American public - that word is terrorism.
Can we even remember 7 long years ago when the use of the word terrorism was fresh to our ears? Its definition had been set in place already of course and the idea of terrorism was certainly not new but never before had its meaning been used by the left and the right to such an extent to convince Americans to go to war. And never before has the word terrorism been broadened to such an extent as to include any and all behavior of our enemies. Even the rare genuine military attack carried out by our enemies against our soldiers is now referred to as terrorism. The word has now completely lost its meaning so I thought I might try to re-focus our thinking on this word here for a moment.
Let's start way back at the source here so we can dissect the origins of this ideology.
Like all cancers in our national discourse the roots of this word go all of the way back to the era into which our country was born. Our sister revolution over in France produced the following statement by Maximilien Robespierrein the late 1700's, “Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue; it is not so much a special principle as it is a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country's most urgent needs.” If you dig back into your history classes from elementary school, you'll recall that the French and Americans became critical allies in the successful negotiation of the U.S. revolution. Additionally, apart from France, many of the U.S. soldiers in our revolutionary war used many of the guerrilla tactics that now fall under the umbrella definition of terrorism. But they weren't terrorists of course. They were patriots.
So the idea is not new at all. In fact, in principle, the idea of terrorism undoubtedly goes all of the way back to the days when cavemen would club one member of an opposing tribe as publicly as possible to intimidate the rest into laying down their clubs. It's a tactic that's as old as war itself.
There are so many definitions of terrorism written by so many different governmental and non-governmental organizations that they are too numerous to list so I'll summarize here. The definition widely used and agreed upon basically says that terrorism is the deliberate use of violence targeting a civilian population to achieve a political, religious, or ideological goal.
Let's look first at the single greatest acts of terrorism in history under this definition. That would be the deliberate extermination of some 200,000 Japanese citizens in the dropping of the first and only nuclear weapons used in war over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Now most Americans wood shoo that example saying that the acts were justified because the Japanese were evil, it saved American lives, and that it ended the largest war in history. The Americans who dropped those bombs are never referred to as terrorists. Americans are far too removed from the realities of war to ever stomach the idea that we would use terrorism in war and if they do make the rare admission that we used terrorist tactics against Japan it's immediately followed by well thought out justifications. I've even heard some claim that because we dropped leaflets over those cities warning them of these attacks before we incinerated those innocent civilians that somehow that too makes those acts of terrorism totally valid. Incidentally, the oil slick bombings of Tokyo in that war killed just as many people and caused far more terror but those attacks are usually forgotten in the shadow of the nukes we used.
Notice that based on this thinking terrorism is not necessarily ALWAYS bad. We acknowledge in this argument that there ARE cases where terrorism is justified. Now we didn't have American citizens in refugee camps the way the Palestinians live (apart from the Japanese we imprisoned of course). We didn't have contaminated water causing cholera and other preventable diseases the way they do in Iraq. We didn't have special forces units bursting through American villages killing all in sight the way our forces do in Afghanistan. All we needed as a justification for terrorism was a military attack on a freshly stolen military base in Hawaii. The rest of the Pacific war was simply the Japanese defending their turf just like we would.
I could list almost countless examples of the U.S. Military deliberately killing civilians to achieve the goals of war but we'll save that list for another blog posting. For the moment let's just focus on the morality of terrorism as the word is used and how that standard is used to lower our enemies to the status of barbarians and savages.
There are some basic ideas that we need to establish first. The "terrorists" in "Al Qaida" and elsewhere are human. Again, because it needs repeating those terrorists are HUMAN. They are not aliens. They are not backwards butchers from the middle ages. They breathe air; they have babies; they hurt; they hope; they fight. Just like we do. They use the tactics they do because they have to. Just like when we attacked Japan.
Suppose for the moment that we decided that we wanted to send F-16's and Apache attack helicopters for free to the Palestinians instead of just to Israel. I know this is an outlandish thought but just tickle your brain with it for a moment. Suppose someone, not even Americans necessarily, somehow managed to sneak jets and helicopters into the camps of Palestine. Do we honestly believe that Palestinians would still strap bombs to their chests in Israeli pizza parlors? OF COURSE NOT! In fact there are rare instances where Palestinians are able to actually launch genuine military attacks on the Israeli military. And what do you think those Palestinian soldiers are referred to as in the media? You got it.
So, really this whole long winded post about terrorism comes down to one basic question and there's no way for me to state this part gently because it touches upon a huge idealogical conflict in our culture. Do you believe that Muslims, Iraqis, Palestinians and all the rest of the people we lump into the category of terrorists are genetically, culturally, or spiritually predisposed to kill themselves or to kill innocent civilians in order to emerge victorious in this war? If you do then go join the KKK or better yet go enlist in the military and put your money where your mouth is because your morals are no different than those of any other dangerous, fascist, and racist cult. Neither Christians, nor Jews, nor Muslims have any monopolistic claim on irrational thought and behavior. The Christians have been launching violent, bloody crusades for thousands of years now. The abhorrent behavior of the Israeli military has included horrendous war crimes which bring great dishonor to every single holocaust victim. And yes the Muslims have absolutely committed horrible crimes against humanity too.
It is the irrational sky god religions which cause these wars to continue so relentlessly NOT terrorism. Terrorism is the act of the desperate. It is the last tool any warrior reaches for because it is a dirty, nasty business and the victor of such an act has to live - or die - with that stain on their souls forever.
So if you're against terrorism and terrorists then you're against war and warriors and you have good reason to be.
So think about the disgusting racism and religious crusade behind the word terrorism every time you hear it now. Think about what that word might mean to you if you were from the planet mars visiting earth. Think about the terror produced by white phosphorous bombs or cluster munitions. Think about the terror caused by U.S. Marines deliberately killing 24 women and children in Haditha in that one rare case which actually came to light. Think about the terror caused by underground charges deliberately set by the Israeli military to knock Palestinian homes down in the occupied territories.
Terrorism is as old as war itself. Getting self righteous about terrorism while supporting war or "supporting the troops" is like getting mad at water for being wet once you've jumped in the pool.
Those who support this racist ideology are absolutely endangering our lives so the next time you feel lousy because your Thanksgiving dinner has erupted into a political meltdown just remember that the "terrorists" are going to attack us again. We're ensuring it. Despite the illusion of safety we enjoy in this American bubble, our lives are indeed at stake.
We're fighting a war on terror huh? Naaaah, I don't think so. Nice try though. Americans are a lot smarter than that. They're lazy and they're confused but I refuse to believe that we're that stupid.
-DJ Freak
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