What is terrorism?
- truearab
- truearab
- abdel_52
- cwg
- truearab
- shadow_crow
This archived discussion is "read only".
» truearab - How to reduce terrorism
I honestly believe that USA's policies regarding combating terrorism are wrong and contre-productive for the following reasons.First of all,it is very difficult to define the meaning of terrorism.As we know every term ending with ism is ideological.It means different things for different people.What happened on the 11 of September 2001 could be regarded as an act of terrorism because the target was civilians.the attacks on Vietnam on the sixties and seventies was an act of terrorism because the target was not just militarly but also cevilian.Even Kissinger the former secretary of states admitted that mistakes had been made during Vietnam War.Now let's look at the way USA is trying to solve the question of terrorism.Sending troups to Afghanistan is rather an emotional reaction to the destruction of World Trade Center rather than a real solution to the problem.After Mr Buch has failed to find Bin Laden he has to continue his "war" against terrorism in Irak,Cuba,Syria ,North Korea,Lybia,Iran etc...It is a waste of time ,money and energy in a futile war like this.I am a great believer in preventing than curing.Whether USA likes or not some groups and countries will aquire nuclear,biological and chemical weapons.One can not stop the spreading of these weapons of mass destruction.It is important to find out why these countries want to acquire them.But more importantly why some have the right to possess them and others not.As long there are conflicts,occupations,USA 's bullying of small countries and economic injustice there will be interest of trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction for self defence.My advice to Mr Buch is if he wants to win war against terrorism he has to change tactics by attacking its causes.-- posted by truearab
» truearab - Re: How to reduce terrorism
I just would like to continue talking about the contradictions of USA's foreign politics regarding combating terrorism in particular Mr Buch's.I am amazed to hear the president talking about not lifting economic sanctions against Cuba because it is a dictarship.I would like him to say the same thing about Arab regimes.For me as an arab I can not not see any difference between Castro,Moubarek,Fahd,mohamed6,Ben Ali etc...They are all dictators and are in power not by the will of the people but by force or heritage .Mr Buch's administration can not be taken seriously because it has no consistent foreign policy.-- posted by truearab
» abdel_52 - Re: Re: How to reduce terrorism
I just want to add to what truearab said in relation to the so-called war against terrorism led by the United States of America.I don't believe in it.For me it is a war between two civilisations; the West and Islam.Since the collapse of Soviet Union USA has become the dominant power.It can attack any country without even asking permission from United Nations Futhermore,China and Russia the remaining powers are more interested in getting aids from USA than opposing its imperialistic policies.The two are not defending just causes like before Thus, USA is declaring war against any country that does not support its policies.It is not a coincidence that most countries on USA's black list are muslims,Irak,Lybia,Iran,Sudan,Syria etc...It is true most Muslim people oppose American Imperialism.This has been proved by a survey recently.USA is not concerned with opposition to its policies coming from the West but rather from the Muslim world.Islam is the only remaining power to challenge USA's dominance and say "enough is enough".-- posted by abdel_52
» cwg - Re: Re: Re: How to reduce terrorism
Terrorism - it's difficult to define. From its word origin, we can assume that it includes tactics that are meant to terrorize your opponent, presumably by killing civilians, into abandoning your agenda against the perpetrators.Yes, there was an act of terrorism on 9-11-2001. It killed roughly 5000 civilians. Since the Bush administration openly declared this an act of war, terrorism does not seem to be restricted to acts outside of war.
Let's see... vietnam was already mentioned. Many many more civilians were purposely killed than on that one day in september. But hey, they were only vietnamese. We're talking first class Americans here.
What about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 150,000 PURPOSELY killed civilians... 40,000 immediately, over 100,000 died from effects of radiation. Propaganda has it that this saved many more lives by winning the war early and preventing a land war in Japan. The truth is that Japan was ready to surrender under the one condition that the Emperor would not be touched by Americans. So Americans made the choice to trade their pride about total victory (they ended up pardoning the Emperor anyway!) against 150,000 civilians. Terrorism? War crime? Probably both.
On a side note, it was not the attack on Pearl Harbor that started the war between Japan and the US. It was America's embargo and sea blockade against Japan six months earlier. According to customary international law, the US committed acts of war half a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan was running out of oil, and had no choice.
The US are not the only ones, but they're often involved. They helped the British in the WW2 bombardment of Hamburg and Dresden, wiping out 500,000 German civilians just weeks before the war was over. The end was already in sight, this atrocity unnecessary.
The US claim they are defending human rights. Ask the African-American population in the south of the contemporary US where they could start.
If anyone has not seen the big neon HIPOCRISY sign over President Bush's head, they must be completely braindead.
I don't know if I agree that this is about West v. East, however. There is a lot of domestic policy involved. When Bush was elected and started pissing everybody off, people said "He needs a war to make up for this s***." Oops. Look what he found.
What do we learn from all this? I agree with the previous posts, in that we have to see the ROOT of terrorism, not the symptom. There are no inherently EVIL people out there who just hate American freedom so much that they suicide bomb themselves. Anyone who thinks about that should see that that's clearly BS. People are pissed off at the US for very good reasons, and it should not have surprised anyone that sooner or later, the populations of the poor countries strike back.
- CWG
-- posted by cwg
» truearab - Re: Re: Re: Re: How to reduce terrorism
I agree with the previous author's argument that USA has committed more terrorism than any other countries and organizations.The second War,Vietnam War etc...are good examples.The problem with this super power is that it reacts forcibly only when the victimss of terrorism are Americans.Does this mean that other lives somewhere are worthless.To the Americans ,it seems to me,the answer is yes.The military power USA has should be used to get rid of dictatorship which in my opinion is responsiblee for the emergence of terrorism.How can this be done? Stop supporting leaders who have no regard for freedom.USA's argument for not doing this is it can not interfere in affairs of other countries but when leader like Sadammm Hussainnn challenges American policies USA does the impossible to show its real face.A dictator whether a friend or otherwise should be treated the same way when human right are abused.
-- posted by truearab
» shadow_crow - Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: How to reduce terrorism
"WARNING: my view may make you uncomfortable or anrgy,"o.k. now that's out of the way i would like 2 say that alot of you are living in a dream world. you seem to be outraged at the fact that the policies of the United States seem to be self serving..........ummmmmm yeah thats sorta of the point of goverment, to achieve it's goals no matter the cost. If you believe otherwise or think that it will someday change then you're not living in reality. If you knew the true nature of power then none of this should surprise you. The way I see it is that there are no "good guys" in this situation, it's like watching 2 demons fighting your life doesn't mean anything to either one so you can choose sides if you want for me i believe that their is another power in control..........
-- posted by shadow_crow
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