Uhh folks.
Terrorism comes in two basic flavours.
There's the "Let's make a name for ourselves and our movement by fighting geopolitical power number n." where n < 3.
Then there's the
"Life here is so bad, the only form of resistance anybody will notice is if we futilely attack the power oppressing us and draw attention to our cause."
Both these approaches are fundamentally neutral to the cause involved. After all, the logic of any particular position has to be independent of any individual's illogical actions.
For example, if I (heaven forfend!) bust into a maternity ward, and slaughter babies in a pattern that spells out "America is the home of the Free" and head into the ICU ward for "Unless you believe in Christ, you shall not be saved", that atrocious action does not invalidate the message. All it says is that I'm an inhuman amazinhunk, period.
The distinction still exists. The Hezbollah condemned the WTC attack. That doesn't make them saints; it just suggests their attitude towards slaughtering innocents is different.
Now, yeah, if you don't think US international policy screws some people over, you haven't been paying attention to the news. If you think US international policy can ever not screw over someone undeserving of being screwed over, you're a democrat or republican of the worst kind.
If you think isolationism is the key, consider the fact that we're paying $1.40 /gallon for gasoline right now, and complaining of the high prices. (for those of you in europe, that's .40 euros / litre).
The price at the pump has been a major political objective since the Carter administration.
(yeah sure, it's more than that, but we can spell that out too).
Don't mistake me -- I don't condone any terroristic action; nor do I consider legitimate many state-sanctioned forms of slaughter. But we can't lick an enemy we don't understand. (unless of course, you want to tell me that that whole "vietnam" thing was the lack of fighting resolve of the american people against a legitimate threat to its national security)
Dinger
author of "What color is your amazinhunk?"
