I ended up at "Ground Zero" at this year’s anniversary of September 11th. There was a big anti-terrorism protest of sorts. I certainly consider myself anti-terrorism (as most people do) but this group were handing a flyer that gave me pause. One thing that caught my eye was the boldface text in the center of the page:
We should not be afraid of the terrorists! The terrorists should be afraid of us!
We can reword that replacing the word "afraid" with it’s synonym "terrified" and it starts getting strange:
We should not be terrified of the terrorists! the terrorists should be terrified of us!
Think about that one for a second.
It seems obvious to me that terrifying people, whether they’re al-Qa’ida or not, is not a good strategy for peace. These people, calling for revenge, are in the same breath trying to spread the message to "the terrorists" that fear only makes them more fearsome — and they’re probably right! But they should see that this is a two-way street.
This attitude of, "you can’t scare us and the more reasons you give us to fear, the more reasons we’ll give you to fear," one held by al-Qa’ida, George W. Bush, and these anti-terrorism protesters alike, blows my mind.
terrorism is such a loaded concept… been reading this great book that suggests, “one of the greatest dangers for Americans in deciding how to confront the Islamist threat lies in continuing to believe- at the urging of senior US leaders- that Muslims hate and attack us for what we are and think, rather than for what we do”
contrast this with the official white paper released by the Australian government regarding ‘Transnational Terrorism’ … “open and pluralist societies like ours are now confronted in fundamental way. There terrorists seek to undermine our security and prosperity. They feel threatened by the values and aspirations that make us an open, tolerant and creative country with a confident future”
—how the hell are you?
They seem to say the same thing. They are both saying that it is the tolerance and openness that is the driving force behind terrorism. The Aussies are a bit artful is getting the message out but I’m not sure if that should be condemned or commended.
I’m more willing to take terrorists as face value. They are angry and hateful over a century of intrusive and self-interested foreign intervention in their own countries and in countries they support. At the moment, the US is the easiest scapegoat for all of this (appropriate or not).
To say that terrorists bomb the US because we treat women right and vote for our president is, IMHO, nonsense. They hate us for our government’s behavior in their back yard and more war does not help that problem.
Jackie! I don’t have your email or anything. Mail me at mako@bork.hampshire.edu