Anonymous said
I would argue that 9/11 was not terrorism, in the way that blowing up random Jews in a pizza parlour is terrorism. The targets were places directly involved in the machinations of the Great Satan, either military or financial.
Wrong, 9/11 was just as much terrorism as blowing up random jews. The targets were chosen to completely enrage, horrify, and terrorise USA into disproportionate or collective punishment thus further radicalising the terrorists' actual or potential supporters, who might otherwise be repulsed by the carnage that such extreme violence causes. This link has the complete article that argues logically and convincingly that Terrorists have embraced suicide attacks mainly for their advantages in this world, rather than their rewards in the next
like other forms of terrorism, suicide attacks are designed to impress the terrorist's own constituency, as well as to coerce their opponents—and “martyrs” have a particular propaganda value
By picking on democracies, the terrorists can be reasonably sure that their adversaries will stop short of “the Mongol method” (ie, wholesale slaughter of the population from which the bombers derive).
The terrorists can also look a few moves ahead and "misery all round" will work in favour of criminal groups like terrorists.
9 comments:
Hang on, an argument isn't just contradiction!
Yes it is!
No it isn't!
Is!
Isn't!
Seriously, ask anybody who knows both of us which one is more likely to have an insight into how a terrorists's mind works... You have to make a distinction between people who carry out terrorist acts and the smaller group of people who manipulate and direct them. The article you cite may explain the second group, but not the first. Death to the Godless West! ;)
(I strongly believe that) A suicide terrorist is an "automata" not a free moral agent- They are merely a pawn, a WMD, to be used at the whim of the organisation. They are invariably indoctrinated and "brainwashed" into believing the spiritual cause you mention.
Knowing why a terrorist acts (as opposed to the terrorist organisation) is as relevant as knowing what the guidance system in a cruise missile is thinking. Does it believe it is doing the right thing, or has it given in to the power of suggestion to cruise its way into oblivion exactly where it's told.
I don't think a mentally disabled child really knows what their actions will cause when strapped with explosives.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050131/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_suicide_attacks_2
A second acount mentioned another disabled young man crying and turning back to his destroyers...blowing him up before he could get back to them.
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