Senators warned of terrorist attack on US by July

[Words]

Originally Posted by Selenay

Why does anyone agree to do it?

Why do our men and women sign up for the armed services?

Because they so firmly believe in something that they are willing to fight for it.

I was in a Violence and Terror class, once, and then a course on the Psychology of Terrorism. One of the most serious things I took away from that course was the following exchange.

We were asked to raise our hands if there was something we would kill for--a person, an idea, an object.

Then, we were asked if there was something we would die for, or to protect.

Then, we were asked if they were the same thing.

If what you are willing to kill for and what you are willing to die for are the same. . . You have the potential to be a suicide bomber.


It's all in how you look at things. . .

I agree. Add to the above the sheer desperation factor and you end up with stories like these...

http://www.aztlan.net/women_martyrs.htm

[apretty]

i think the only obvious answer is to start building bomb shelters.

[Queerasfck]

Originally Posted by apretty

i think the only obvious answer is to start building bomb shelters.

It's definitely ELEVATED here.

[Words]

Dress,

What I'm getting at is that the West is treating the symptoms of the disease called terrorism not the cause. Which of course, it will never do because as someone has already pointed out, right at the center - amongst other things - you find the situation in Israel. And so the attacks continue.

I don't approve of suicide attacks. Hell, I don't approve of violence in any form. But I do understand, having lived amongst people who literally have nothing to live for, why they happen.

Words

[apretty]

Originally Posted by Words

I don't approve of suicide attacks. Hell, I don't approve of violence in any form. But I do understand, having lived amongst people who literally have nothing to live for, why they happen.

Words

agreed, the most dangerous man is one with nothing left to lose. (which i'm pretty sure is why we/any country gives just enough aid to not make much of a difference.)

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Words

Dress,

What I'm getting at is that the West is treating the symptoms of the disease called terrorism not the cause. Which of course, it will never do because as someone has already pointed out, right at the center - amongst other things - you find the situation in Israel. And so the attacks continue.

I don't approve of suicide attacks. Hell, I don't approve of violence in any form. But I do understand, having lived amongst people who literally have nothing to live for, why they happen.

Words

I want to thank you for pointing this out. Too rarely do people try to think about this issue from the opposing forces side. When I responded to you yesterday I was coming from a place of having done a lot of research and then spent a lot of time (on my bike) thinking thoughts along these lines: "if I had to go up against the most nightmarishly lethal fighting machine the world has yet seen, what would *I* do". I've also done a lot of thinking along the lines of "if I were the leader of a Western nation, faced with a threat like that posed by Al Qaeda or Hamas what would *I* do".

If we're going to be effective at shaping policy, we have to be willing to see the world as it looks from both the power centers and from places like Gaza and NOT how we would *prefer* the world to look.

Cheers
Aj

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by Words

I agree. Add to the above the sheer desperation factor and you end up with stories like these...

http://www.aztlan.net/women_martyrs.htm

This is so powerful to view, to think about.

Originally Posted by Words

Dress,

What I'm getting at is that the West is treating the symptoms of the disease called terrorism not the cause. Which of course, it will never do because as someone has already pointed out, right at the center - amongst other things - you find the situation in Israel. And so the attacks continue.

I don't approve of suicide attacks. Hell, I don't approve of violence in any form. But I do understand, having lived amongst people who literally have nothing to live for, why they happen.

Words

Nothing to live for and a root factor ignored with such countries as the US supporting overt oppression and violence.

I don't see much positive movement in any direction without what you refer to here. Not without going beyond the symptoms to the causes. That box must be opened.


I have often thought about how entirely foreign the fact of living under the threat of having my family destroyed each and every day is to someone like me. The idea of just going to have a coffee or browsing a bookstore with knowledge that it just might be the day I am blown-up is not part of my experience. And to think of people that do live this way is what hits me the most. As well as accepting this for any people, anywhere.

Terrorist attacks will never cease as long as this is accepted as the status quo.