I can understand terrorism in socio-economic terms. You can characterize it as a religion vs. other religions if you like, but the bulk of the beef terrorists have is with the socio-economic disparity between European-descending countries and all the darker-skinned peoples of the planet. When faced with what is tantamount to outright oppression, when faced with the hijacking of other cultures by consumerism, Pepsi and Brittney, Californication, and Disneyfication, when faced with liberalism so rampant it would be considered outlandishly offensive merely 25 years ago (even in the US), yet having it simultaneously crammed down your throat, and all in the face of the world's mightiest armies, WHAT DOES ONE DO? Form a rebellion, band all oppressed nations together and fight the infidel dogs? Not likely. Besides, we'd be stupid to assume all repressed folks can agree on common goals and means to achieve them, despite the fact they are all in the same boat right now.
In the face of such frustration, I think it is very understandable that one who loves his country, his people, and his ideology would be so valiant as to sacrifice his very existence in an act that just might whittle away at the oppressive culture. Whether these acts spark social reform within 1st-world nations that make them address the problems of disparity (e.g. Israili-Palestine peace talks) or whether they sow the seeds of social upheavel and outright rebellion in those oppressor nations, or whether they just make the oppressor nations try really hard to leave other nations the hell alone, the terrorist has achieved his goal to some small degree.
The problem the terrorist faces is that sometimes those oppressor nations behave just as irrationally as the terrorists do. Sometimes, they use a single awesome event of terror (9/11) to inspire an outright manhunt of the agents of terror, chasing them willy-nilly across the globe with all their technological might and even going on a near-crusade and toppling a few barely-related countries in the process. In these instances, the terrorist's goals are thwarted by the axiom: for every irrationalism, there is an equal and opposite irrationalism.
Now, being from the oppressor, rather than the terrorist, part of the world, the question becomes how to deal with those we subjigate. Well, we can make them love us and join us or fear us and cower -- or we can annihalate them altogether.
Love us:
1. Throw money at the problem. Use more of what the oppressed peoples hate -- Disney and Pepsi and Pokemon and video games -- to slowly break their will and assimilate them into the live-on-credit, drive-SUVs, waste-money, sue-others-for-all-your-ills people we all should be. This is the loooong road to change.
NOTE: on this issue, aside from "throwing money" and increasing the standard of living in these countries, one of the MOST EFFECTIVE tactics for long-term social reform is EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN. Honestly -- if anything in the post can be called sincere, this is it. Helps control the population too.
Fear us:
2. Topple a few countries, round up a bunch of terrorists. Execute them if you are lucky enough to live where the namby-pamby liberal path has not progressed so far as to make that legally intolerable. This is our path to date since 9-11.
Destruction:
Two varieties (as I see it)
1. Outright annihalation of all forms of radical Muslinism. A/k/a Crusades 2003, sponsored by Bud Light, coming to a desert near you. Use Iraq as a model. Enter, topple the government. Again, throw money at the problem as you are rebuilding the country. This is unlikely, and would spark open rebellion in oppressor nations due to the humanitarian concerns of the citizens. Some people simply prefer soft-oppressionism over hard-oppressionism. Serves the oppressor nations right -- they shouldn't have let their people get so spoiled, sensitive and namby-pamby to begin with.
2. Outright annihalation of fundamentalism. All religious-based governments are hereby outlawed. Be whatever religion you want, pray to Allah, Satan, or Anna Nicole the Fertility Goddess for all we care, but your government must be secular. Select another type of government, and we will send our tanks in and reboot and reinstall for you.
Anywho, some random thoughts. Hope they help.
[ 06-24-2003, 05:04 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]