Terrorism and root causes

Initially, I believed we should strike at the terrorist with full, terrible wrath. We should strike fear into the hearts of any who would consider harming US citizens.

Having thought about this, however, I now see this could be counterproductive.

We need to consider the existence of legitimate grievances by those who commited this act. There is every possibility they were, in fact, driven to this deed by the laws and policies of the United States.

It is not inappropriate to ask, "Could this event have been avoided if the United States gave due consideration to dissenting points of view?" Nor would it be inappropriate in the future to better consider the positions and reasoning of people who disagree with current policy.

And who better to provide insight into the United States' policy than those who must live under it every day?

Perhaps it is time for the United States to step back from the status quo, take a deep breath, and rethink things. There is a famous saying I would like to paraphrase -- "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

When we calmly and rationally consider the demands of the so-called "lead terrorist", we see that he may actually have some valid points. Certainly, few could dispute his accuracy in historical events.

As reasoning human beings, we can separate the methods from the goals. While we are right to condemn certain methods, we must consider the possibility the goals themselves are correct. Indeed, adopting the goals may bring about less bloodshed in the future.

	A browser correction, dear reader (5.00 / 5) (#1)
	by Adam Rightmann on Fri Oct 26th, 2001 at 09:33:34 AM PST

	I think you have misconfigured your browser, kind sir. Please follow the following steps (tested in the industry standard IE 5.50) Hold down the Alt and F keys at the same time, and then press O. TYpe the following "http://www.kuro5hin.org" Press Enter, you will be transported to a magial land of fuzzy minded like thinking apologists. A. Rightmann

	repulsive (5.00 / 3) (#2)
	by osm on Fri Oct 26th, 2001 at 12:04:20 PM PST

	I saw an interview last night with two senators who met with an iranian official of some sort. they asked him, "why is the United States so hated in your region?" He replied that we are seen as hypocrites. And for that, we deserve to die. These are the people you want to "reason" with. These are the people you want to "understand." These are the people you want to sit in a circle and jerk off with. No. You are wrong. We must strike with determination, no mercy and with the conviction that we are right and they are wrong. Period. Now go sit in the corner and pipe down.

	gross! (none / 0) (#3)
	by nathan on Fri Oct 26th, 2001 at 12:06:01 PM PST

	What a huge puddle of wonk! Eww, I almost stepped in it! Nathan -- Li'l Sis: Yo, that's a real grey area. Even by my lax standards.

	It is Jealousy pure and simple. (3.66 / 3) (#4)
	by Anonymous Reader on Fri Oct 26th, 2001 at 06:49:30 PM PST

	The Islamofascists of the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey are upset, but more than that they are GREEN WITH ENVY at the success of the USA. So when they don't get their own way, when they see that the other kid has an ice-cream and they don't, they do what any two-year old child would do. They throw a tantrum. Now, what needs to be done, but which the USA has no stomach for is to use extreme brute force to crack the terrorism problem once and for all. America has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. Poised in bunkers dotted around this great country of ours are thousands of megaton-capacity nukes, just waiting to be unleashed. We should have done it in Vietnam. We sure as hell should have done it to Bagdhad. And we absolutely must do it to Kabul. Nuke that fucker. Send the Muslims^H^H^H^H^H^H^HTerrorists a message they will understand. Radioactive death from above. Lets see if the almighty Allah steps in to pluck the nukes from the sky before they reign down in glorious technicolor on the smug terrorist nations, on Syria, on Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, etc etc etc. The only way to reason with these fuckers is FORCE and when I say FORCE, I mean NUCLEAR force. We must do it NOW, before it is too late.

	what the hell (none / 0) (#5)
	by Frithiof on Fri Oct 26th, 2001 at 10:31:24 PM PST

	is that ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H shit? -Frith

	Danger: Kuro5bot Malfunction (none / 0) (#6)
	by CorporateRepublic on Fri Oct 26th, 2001 at 11:13:53 PM PST

	It looks like one of the Kuro5bots malfunctioned. Someone fix the bot's web browser.