Before I begin, I want to say that this was written last week and I still haven't posted it. I have be so busy, there is like no time left in my week anymore. 3 Blogs, an art class, and I've joined a gym. Plus my wife still does aikido twice a week, which is (1) time I have to watch the kids, so can't blog; and (2) time I can't go to the gym, so I have to find other time. Not that I mind her doing Aikido - I'm happy she's doing it, and doing well in it, I might add. But somethig's got to give and SO FAR, it's been IMHO. Now, without any further pitchign and moaning: On with the show...
Wow. So a couple of weeks have flown right on by, and I didn’t make any time to write anything down about it! And what a couple of weeks it’s been. “Speaker” Boehner. *shudder* We’ll see how long that lasts! The unfortunate events in Tucson, and the terrible fate that played out on January 8th. And part of me wants to say “Thank God” that it WASN’T some deranged Tea-Bagger or Glenn Beck fan, or else there would now be some liberal, somewhere, embarrassing himself and the rest of us the way Sarah Palin did for her crowd. Hey: I watched it happen after Seung-Hui Cho and Virginia Tech – the closest thing I have to hallowed ground, I might add. The vigil hadn’t ended before you had assholes on one side calling for more gun control laws (note: the ones we already have weren’t enforced, and the existing system was not operating the way it was designed to, or even being used) and assholes on the other side saying that it's just proof that we ALL need to start carrying guns. Right. Because apparently what Blacksburg and Tucson needed on those terrible days were MORE confused, panicked people finring weapons through the crowd. Anyway, the one guy I think had the best take on the inevitable politicization of public tragedies was Professor Bob Carrol, someone who I usually think has the best take on just about everything. Check it out: Contrary-to-fact Conditionals & Media Vultures in my Crosshairs
I’m not saying that we SHOULDN’T be more civil in our discourse, but using tragedy to highlight even THAT (which to some people STILL constitutes an “agenda”) is still politicizing it. At some point, we need to let the families grieve in piece and realize that the WORLD is not like the INTERNET: People don’t want to hear our opinions immediately after a loved one has died, and no one is looking to us to solve all the world’s problems with a proposal that can fit on a bumper sticker. It’s tempting, I know. But this was nothing more than “just one of those crazy things that happens in this fucked up world.” Civil discourse would not have prevented it. Nor would gun control laws. Nor would MORE guns. Nor would the death penalty. Nor would anything that some dipshit in our sad excuse for the media has to suggest. And little they’re going to say will help anyone make sense of what happened either. There’s not a lesson to be learned, nor is there any hidden meaning, and God doesn’t have a grand plan, here. Each was simply the random act of a madman.
Personally? I might say it’s the price we pay to live in a free and open society. I don’t know if I REALLY DO believe that, entirely, in this case. But the principles are there, and I’ve argued it before. But if I DID decide to make that case, I’d at least have the decency to wait until the dead had been buried and mourned, and not say that in a forum where one of the family would hear it! (Which means… NATIONAL TV is probably out!) What I WILL say is this: My heart goes out to the victims and their families. I can not imagine the pain they must be feeling. They have my sincerest condolences, and I do hope that in time they will find peace.
Was that so hard?
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A quick adendum... my condolences also go out to the Kennedy and Shriver families for their loss today of Sargent Shriver. I can't wait to read about Ann Coulter's summary of the man's life, as she evicerates him for the crimes of being (1) a democrat, (2) a Kennedy (sort of) and (3) someone who actually accomplished some GOOD with their life.
Who IS this guy?!
Political Talk Show Host and Internet Radio Personality. My show, In My Humble Opinion, aired on RainbowRadio from 2015-2017, and has returned for 2021! Feel free to contact me at niceguy9418@usa.com. You can also friend me on Facebook.
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Showing posts with label cho. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cho. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
THIS is not THAT, Part Two: Terrorism is not War
More fun today on MMFA, picking up where we left off yesterday with Coakley and Brown and eventually meandering into how little Conservatives really understand about economics. BUT... That's not what I want to talk about. In Part Two (of Three, I believe) of "THIS is not THAT," I want to attempt to define TERRORISM, in my own words, from my own POV, and contrast it with WAR.
So first things last: WAR, or an ACT OF WAR, is basically any kind of violence or attack on the population or infrastructure of one country, carried out according to the foreign policy of another. And that last bit is what seperates WAR form TERRORISM. Both LOOK the same, but an act of WAR is officially and legally the act of another soverign power. So if Iran blew up something in the United States, it would clearly be an act of WAR. And in that case there's no need to bring terrorism into it! After all, an act of WAR justifies a response in kind. IOW: We'd nuke the shit out of them. If a word like WAR is sufficient to allow us to do that, why do we feel the need to bring in another one?
So... to be TERRORISM, first and foremost, it must be the work of an individual or group that IS NOT acting on the orders of a soverign country. Terrorsim need not cause death, or even injury. Blowing up an empty building can effectively sew fear. Terrorism is not random: It's motivated by a political agenda of some kind. That agenda CAN be religious, but it doesn't have to be. An act of terrorism needs to carry with it the implied threat that it can heppen again; that "we" can "get to you." There shouldn't be an effort to HIDE who's responsible for an act of TERROR. To be effective, a group must claim responsibility so that people will know that the act was commited to bring about their political agenda. That won't work if no one knows who did it. And there's one more thing, and this is a minor point, and a personal one, but I have a hard time calling anything "terrorism" that doesn't involve a BOMB of some kind. To me, GUNS just don't cut it. So yes, to that end, John Muhammad and Nidal Hasan are not "terrorists." Their crimes just don't fit the definiton and their religion is irrelevant.
Niether man really had any broad political agenda. Muhammad fits the defrintion of a Serial Killer or possibly Spree killer rather quite well, and if he wasn't Muslim, no one would even be TALKING about terrorism. Hasan had no real political agenda either. He just didn't want to go to be deployed. He may have been consorting with muslim radicals, but without his imminent deployment, he likely would not have done what he did, when he did it. His actions were not being done to STOP the war, just to avid his own involvement. What's more, his actions are TEXTBOOK spree-killer. If he was white, not muslim, and shot a bunch of people in a school yard or from the top of a McDonald's, again: we wouldn't even consider it terrorism.
And why should their RELIGION matter? Is it terrorism if a muslim robs a bank? Knocks over a liquor store? Steals a car? Kills his wife? Kills the man he found with his wife? Sells alchohol to a minor? No. It would be absurd to think any of that that. But if a Muslim kills a bunch of people? AUTOMATICALLY we assume it's terrorism.
It's nonsense in these two cases and here's why: As soon as either man was caught, there was no additional threat. The threat had passed. They were not part of a larger network. They were not the first of many attacks to come. We knew the minute either man was taken down, that the nightmare was OVER. That's a feeling that is far better related to serial killers than terrorists. If we captured Bin Laden, do you really think we should breath a sigh of relief? Not really. More likely we should brace ourselves for the retaliation of his followers. After 9/11 we feared another attack so much we made radical changes to our society to prevent it. Not so with Muhammad or Hassan.
Also, why are THEY terrorists and not Seung Hui Cho? After all, HE killed a ot of people. HE scared people. (Disclosure: I'm a Hokie myself!) He even had a political minfesto, albeit a rambling, poorly written one. Are we letting him off the terrorism hook because he's not MUSLIM? Perhaps in some people's minds, but it's far more reasonable to do so becuase, like I said, once he was caught the nightmare was over. There was no implicit threat of additional attacks.
Tim McVeigh fits the definition pretty well without any Religious influence at all. Blew something up. Killed a bunch of people. Had a political agenda - one eerily similar to that of Glenn Beck and the Tea-Baggers, I might add. One can argue that he didn't "claim responsibility" for the act, but he eventually DID. (And he was caught after just the first one, so we really can't say how things might have played out if he'd gotten away with it.) As for the threat of more attacks? Well, we were concerned enough about them to bump up sercurity, change some traffic patterns in Washington DC and install anti-truck barriers in front of all federal builidngs. So yeah - I'd say that we were pretty worried about them.
The guy that I often use as an example of a non-Muslim terrorist is Ted Kaczinsky. He fits the bill: Bombs, killings, fear of more attacks, Political manifesto. But did he claim responsibility? Well... yeah, like McVeigh after he was caught, but it went on for a while with Kaczinsky. He DID however leave calling cards - bomb parts were initialled with "FC" for "Freedom Club," for example. But unlike McVeigh, his acts were not sufficiently public enough that the really caught the public's attention. Most of American didn't know anything was going on until the caught him. So... it could be argued that he's more of just a serial killer that a terrorist, due to the lack of publicity. However, there's no also doubt that SOMEONE was getting the message and KNEW that these attacks were all from the same guy, so I'd say that counts.
So that's the test:
1) Violent Act
2) Political Agenda
3) Claim of Responsibility (of some kind)
4) Implicit threat of another attck
5) NOT tied to the foreign policy of a soverign country
6) I still say BOMBS or MISSILES rather than GUNS.
And Religion doesn't enter into it, beyond it's possibly being part of the political agenda they want to bring about. (OK, if Muhammad or Hassan were really trying to impliment Sharia Law in America, they'd be a step closer to being terrorsist. But neither was really all that into that. One guy was just a nutbag and the other just a coward and a traitor.) But in any case being Muslim is neither requred nor sufficient to make one's commission of a violent crime into an an act of terrorism.
BTW... I should hope it's obvious that the "War of Drugs" or the "War on Poverty" of even the "War on Terror" are not literally WARS. It's an un fortunate reality that the only metiphor we really have in our public discourse for solving problems is declaring war on them. How exactly owuld even prosecture the "War on Cancer" for example? Bomb hospitals? "War on Terror" is the closest thing to an actual "War," but what COUNTRY are we fighting? None really. We're fighting IN many countries. But were not fighting against any of them. So it's not a war. It's just a clumsy metaphor for using the military to fight a problem.
So first things last: WAR, or an ACT OF WAR, is basically any kind of violence or attack on the population or infrastructure of one country, carried out according to the foreign policy of another. And that last bit is what seperates WAR form TERRORISM. Both LOOK the same, but an act of WAR is officially and legally the act of another soverign power. So if Iran blew up something in the United States, it would clearly be an act of WAR. And in that case there's no need to bring terrorism into it! After all, an act of WAR justifies a response in kind. IOW: We'd nuke the shit out of them. If a word like WAR is sufficient to allow us to do that, why do we feel the need to bring in another one?
So... to be TERRORISM, first and foremost, it must be the work of an individual or group that IS NOT acting on the orders of a soverign country. Terrorsim need not cause death, or even injury. Blowing up an empty building can effectively sew fear. Terrorism is not random: It's motivated by a political agenda of some kind. That agenda CAN be religious, but it doesn't have to be. An act of terrorism needs to carry with it the implied threat that it can heppen again; that "we" can "get to you." There shouldn't be an effort to HIDE who's responsible for an act of TERROR. To be effective, a group must claim responsibility so that people will know that the act was commited to bring about their political agenda. That won't work if no one knows who did it. And there's one more thing, and this is a minor point, and a personal one, but I have a hard time calling anything "terrorism" that doesn't involve a BOMB of some kind. To me, GUNS just don't cut it. So yes, to that end, John Muhammad and Nidal Hasan are not "terrorists." Their crimes just don't fit the definiton and their religion is irrelevant.
Niether man really had any broad political agenda. Muhammad fits the defrintion of a Serial Killer or possibly Spree killer rather quite well, and if he wasn't Muslim, no one would even be TALKING about terrorism. Hasan had no real political agenda either. He just didn't want to go to be deployed. He may have been consorting with muslim radicals, but without his imminent deployment, he likely would not have done what he did, when he did it. His actions were not being done to STOP the war, just to avid his own involvement. What's more, his actions are TEXTBOOK spree-killer. If he was white, not muslim, and shot a bunch of people in a school yard or from the top of a McDonald's, again: we wouldn't even consider it terrorism.
And why should their RELIGION matter? Is it terrorism if a muslim robs a bank? Knocks over a liquor store? Steals a car? Kills his wife? Kills the man he found with his wife? Sells alchohol to a minor? No. It would be absurd to think any of that that. But if a Muslim kills a bunch of people? AUTOMATICALLY we assume it's terrorism.
It's nonsense in these two cases and here's why: As soon as either man was caught, there was no additional threat. The threat had passed. They were not part of a larger network. They were not the first of many attacks to come. We knew the minute either man was taken down, that the nightmare was OVER. That's a feeling that is far better related to serial killers than terrorists. If we captured Bin Laden, do you really think we should breath a sigh of relief? Not really. More likely we should brace ourselves for the retaliation of his followers. After 9/11 we feared another attack so much we made radical changes to our society to prevent it. Not so with Muhammad or Hassan.
Also, why are THEY terrorists and not Seung Hui Cho? After all, HE killed a ot of people. HE scared people. (Disclosure: I'm a Hokie myself!) He even had a political minfesto, albeit a rambling, poorly written one. Are we letting him off the terrorism hook because he's not MUSLIM? Perhaps in some people's minds, but it's far more reasonable to do so becuase, like I said, once he was caught the nightmare was over. There was no implicit threat of additional attacks.
Tim McVeigh fits the definition pretty well without any Religious influence at all. Blew something up. Killed a bunch of people. Had a political agenda - one eerily similar to that of Glenn Beck and the Tea-Baggers, I might add. One can argue that he didn't "claim responsibility" for the act, but he eventually DID. (And he was caught after just the first one, so we really can't say how things might have played out if he'd gotten away with it.) As for the threat of more attacks? Well, we were concerned enough about them to bump up sercurity, change some traffic patterns in Washington DC and install anti-truck barriers in front of all federal builidngs. So yeah - I'd say that we were pretty worried about them.
The guy that I often use as an example of a non-Muslim terrorist is Ted Kaczinsky. He fits the bill: Bombs, killings, fear of more attacks, Political manifesto. But did he claim responsibility? Well... yeah, like McVeigh after he was caught, but it went on for a while with Kaczinsky. He DID however leave calling cards - bomb parts were initialled with "FC" for "Freedom Club," for example. But unlike McVeigh, his acts were not sufficiently public enough that the really caught the public's attention. Most of American didn't know anything was going on until the caught him. So... it could be argued that he's more of just a serial killer that a terrorist, due to the lack of publicity. However, there's no also doubt that SOMEONE was getting the message and KNEW that these attacks were all from the same guy, so I'd say that counts.
So that's the test:
1) Violent Act
2) Political Agenda
3) Claim of Responsibility (of some kind)
4) Implicit threat of another attck
5) NOT tied to the foreign policy of a soverign country
6) I still say BOMBS or MISSILES rather than GUNS.
And Religion doesn't enter into it, beyond it's possibly being part of the political agenda they want to bring about. (OK, if Muhammad or Hassan were really trying to impliment Sharia Law in America, they'd be a step closer to being terrorsist. But neither was really all that into that. One guy was just a nutbag and the other just a coward and a traitor.) But in any case being Muslim is neither requred nor sufficient to make one's commission of a violent crime into an an act of terrorism.
BTW... I should hope it's obvious that the "War of Drugs" or the "War on Poverty" of even the "War on Terror" are not literally WARS. It's an un fortunate reality that the only metiphor we really have in our public discourse for solving problems is declaring war on them. How exactly owuld even prosecture the "War on Cancer" for example? Bomb hospitals? "War on Terror" is the closest thing to an actual "War," but what COUNTRY are we fighting? None really. We're fighting IN many countries. But were not fighting against any of them. So it's not a war. It's just a clumsy metaphor for using the military to fight a problem.
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