Politics: Terrorism 101

I know it's programmed all over the news, thrown across the paper headlines and bubbling out of your self-loathing neighbor's mouth--lets call him Joe--that those fucking terrorists are tearing this world apart. Well you know what, fuck Joe. Maybe a crash course in Special Ed American History might jog Joe's memory a little more, Corky as a tutor could work, but might it actually be possible that this "terrorism" we're at war with is our fault?

First off, violence is violence, be it covered in a suit, a turban, in the name of patriotism or terrorism, there is no difference in my opinion. I certainly can't condone the killing of innocent civilians, well-- let me rephrase that. I don't condone the killing of innocent people as long as they're not too fucking retarded to see past a whitewashed foreign image and only aid the constant cycle of fear mongering. That stubbornly ignorant populace's genocide might be a cause worth seeking out, but I'll digress my contempt for the "intellectually abstinent" crowd; I just think if you're a fucking dunce hat on the short side of a dumb stick you're better off in the grave than in a fucking voting booth, or just society in general. Let's however try and make one thing clear--in my opinion civilian casualties are often a byproduct of a larger goal propagated by terrorist organizations. People who bomb busses and go to Pizza Hut with a suitcase of C-4 with the sole intention of killing civilians aren't terrorists, they're mass murderers. Hopefully I can delve more into this difference before I get thrown in the internet equivalent of Guantanamo.

There are themes that play out through the decades, like war and drugs in the 60s, communism and the WAR on drugs in the 70s and 80s, the internet revolution in the 90s, and now we get a nice supersized serving of turban wearing terrorism in the big double 0s. But lets go back a few more decades-- say around circa 1700s. I wonder if our wig wearing, slave peddling, dope smoking founding fathers were considered terrorists in their days. My, how things have changed. ? ? ?

I get so sick of this massively hypocritical "off with your head" mentality we project onto "terrorists" when my government (USA) is the biggest terrorist organization in the fucking world. We've toppled regimes, covertly overthrown countries, installed puppet leaders, killed more civilians than Al Qaeda can shake a sand dune at, and even invaded sovereign nations totally unprovoked. Like our cause is more righteous when it's only self-serving, like our action is warranted when it's uneccessary, and like our vision is for the better when we fail to see the vision of the people who bear witness to ours. Do we not kill innocent people? Do we not instill fear into the hearts of innocent civilians with our gung-ho foreign policies? Do we not use our might as a threat just like these terrorists use their stealth?

There's a contempt world wide for America, and it didn't just pop out of the sand and onto your TV screen on 9/11. This pot has been stirring for over 60 years stemming from a foreign policy driven by personal gain and capitalism, though I may be bordering on redundancy there. You can only push people so far until they push back, and much like we found a way to push in the 1700's, others are finding more modern ways to push, and unfortunately violence is just about the only way to be heard in this era if you want to make a point or take a stand. I hate innocent deaths resulting from acts of war just as much as the next guy, but more than that, I hate the reasons why these people have motives to carry out such acts. I'm sick of scapegoating the terrorists as the scourge of the earth, and I'm sick of the word terrorist. Period. That is unless we agree to acknowledge our own government's label as terrorists, which brings me to the all important question..

Who are the real terrorists? Who are the real patriots? I suppose it depends on which side of the fence you're on, or what you're looking at. I suppose terrorism is a bit like beauty in that it rests in the eye of the beholder which I find pretty ironic. Our terrorist is another man's patriot, and let us not be so jaded to think that these people are blind in their hate. These people are tired of being oppressed, robbed, and stepped over because we have nothing to gain from them, or what we do have to gain we just take. They're sick of the hypocrisy, they're sick of Israel, they're sick of Palestine, and they're fucking sick of America's capitalistic magic wand. Is that so different than being sick of taxation without representation and those goddamn Redcoats raping men's wives? Yet we revere the men who stood up against that oppression and granted them the highest honor a country can bestow a citizen; a patriot.

Before you think I'm all buddy buddy with the turban wearing camel jockey terrorist crew, I just want to say that I detest anyone who commits an act of violence--especially in the name of religion-- but under any circumstances, period. I'm not taking sides, I'm trying to remove the bias that somehow our cause is more righteous, or the blood we spill is somehow more beneficial to the world. It's not, and until we stop asking the question of "WHO FUCKING DID IT" and ask the more important question of "WHY DID THEY DO IT" I don't see any real progress ever being made. It's like asking WHY is out of the fucking question. When was the last time you saw Peter Jennings or some other chair jockey motherfucker stateside asking WHY we were being attacked, or anyone for that matter? It's all about WHO did it, WHERE are they, and HOW many died? If they even delve into the question of why it usually gets scapegoated onto religious fundamentalism, which actually might be the case sometimes, and sometimes not. Who fucking knows? Not me. WHY? GOOD FUCKING QUESTION.

So how do we end this shit? That's another really good question, and it depends on who you ask I suppose. We could stay the course of "world conformity," I mean it didn't quite work out for the nazis but our approach is a little more digestible so maybe we'll get "lucky". We could go back to Isolationism like most of Europe, but I really don't think you can piss a whole bunch of people off and go home and expect everything to be hunky dory, so bad idea. Maybe we could become "terrorists" ourselves and take our fucking country back. Your guess is as good as mine, but it's our bed even though we didn't make the son of a bitch (a hearty fuck you to the powers that be, have been, and will be) and I guess we're going to sleep in it.

Sweet dreams.