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JUST THE FAQs
"Will This Happen Again?"
by H. David Blalock
It is inevitable as long as there are people who believe they can extort political power through the means of terrorism that these attacks will continue.
The United States has become a target lately mainly because of its support of Israel, but even absent that, the U.S. would still eventually be a target. In the long run, all countries that do not meet the strict standards of belief defined by the terrorists will be targets. The 9/11 attacks were only the last in a long campaign against America in particular, a war declared but unrecognized. Libya, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and other Arab nations have sponsored anti-American terrorism and there is no evidence to indicate they have given up on it.
America is finally joining the long roll of victims. Germany, Britain, Spain, Russia, and even China are grizzled veterans of this situation. Terrorism recognizes no ideology but its own as valid. Democracy, monarchy, or communism; terrorists are indiscriminate in their hatred.
The main body of terrorism involves the Arab-Israeli conflict, but there remains a large contingent who have no interest in that. Witness the IRA and Orange Volunteers in Britain, the ABB in the Philippines, the AIIB in Japan, the Interahamwe of Rwanda, the Devrimci Sol of Turkey, the LTTE of Sri Lanka, PAGAD of South Africa, the RUF of Sierra Leone, the Shining Path in Peru, and hundreds of others. These groups meet the definition of terrorists without connection to Islam.
There has been accusation that a war on terrorism is equivalent to a war on Islam, but as can be easily seen, Islam does not have the corner on terrorism. The war on terrorism is the first true world war because it reaches into every nation in the world. There are no neutral nations in this conflict. From the Arctic Circle to the South Pole, terrorism is a real threat. Waging such a war will, without a doubt, precipitate further terrorist attacks. This is not only unavoidable but, in a way, desirable. By making terrorist attacks, the states and organizations that sponsor them are declaring their eligibility for reprisal and elimination.
Only when it becomes clear that terrorism will no longer be tolerated, only when it becomes clear that terrorism will bring destruction on the terrorists, only when it becomes clear that terrorism is suicide for all involved, will we be able to say "this cannot happen again."
For more information:
http://web.nps.navy.mil/~library/tgp/chrnmain.htm
http://web.nps.navy.mil/~library/tgp/tgpndx.htm
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=terrorist+organizations
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JUST THE FAQs: "What can we do about this?"
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