Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 8 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 20 years, 11 months ago by
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After a specific attack, does a terrorist recognize a victory? What does a terrorist look for as an indication he/she/they have won? Death? Short-term chaos? An unpopular return strike that diminishes the responding country’s reputation? Or, does it involve confrontation between attacked groups? Perhaps between American Caucasion citizens and American Arabs, for example?
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Name : Martin P., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 28, City : Detroit, State : MI, Country : United States, Occupation : Scientist, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,I think that prior to defining a terrorist victory, one must define what a terrorist attack is. Using a strategic point of view, any attack that does not follow conventional means can be defined as a terrorist attack. Therefore, the term already will have varied meanings based on the context it is used in. The incidents of Sept. 11, 2001, while defined as a terrorist attack here, were considered conventional warfare in the Middle East, while in the Middle East, missile attacks and smart bombs would be considered terrorist. That is because the term ‘terrorist’ implies one who strikes fear to the point of terror, which typically results in paralysis.
Given that definition, victory would be when the object of attack entered a state of paraylsis, which is exactly what the United States did.
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Name : Tre, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Taoist, Age : 36, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Management consultant, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,Every terrorist group has a cause. Long-term victory is not established until it is perceived their cause is fulfilled. Short term victory is another matter. The objectives of a terrorist attack are to make the opposition’s spines turn to jelly. In the case of the WTC, they reasoned that if they can kill a few dozen thousand people out of nowhere, that the rest of the country would develop a yellow stripe down their backs and be brought to their knees by fear, and that daily life would be irreversibly disrupted. However, it seems that they are also riding on the hope that this incident will bring about a regional war which would seperate the true believers from the false and would see the West come tumbling down.
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Name : Dan27190, Gender : M, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Pentecostal, Age : 22, City : L.A., State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,Tre’s definition of ‘terrorist attack’ is wronhg. A terrorist attack is not an ‘unconventional attack.’ It is defined by a variety of things: it is aimed specifically at innocent civilians instead of military or political targets. It’s purpose is to kill those people even though they have absolutely nothing to do with the ‘conflict.’ Terrorist acts are planned anonymously by masterminds who hide among normal people in order to diffuse any possible retribution (using civilized people’s concern for innocent lives to protect themselves as they work to destroy innocent lives). Finally terrorist acts are characterized by the terrorists willingness to exceed the evil that men are able to comprehend. When skyjacking first began it was unthinkable that anyone would risk the lives of hundreds of people. Now these monsters have extended the bounds of ‘thinkable’ to include crashing hundreds of innocent people into buildings containing thousands of innocent people. This is hardly the equivalent of dropping a smart bomb (so named because it is capable of striking an specific target and minimizing loss of innocent life) on an airport after weeks of announcements of our intentions, and many opportunities to avoid such attacks by the simple expedient of handing over a murderer. The ‘paralysis’ that Tre believes proved the success of the terrorist attack of 9/11 in reality saved many lives. For example, closing the stock market prevented some of the people who knew about the attack from cashing in on it, which will probably save many lives in the future as those funds certainly would have been used to kill more innocents. The freezing of all airline flights definitely prevented a repeat of the barbaric actions taken by the Muslim fanatics, some of whom were already on board flights which did not take off. A terrorist act succeeds only if the attacked country does something to mollify or satisfy the invisible perpetrators of the acts because it fears a repeat of them. I don’t know of any terrorist acts that have succeeded in giving the terrorists what they want, unless what they want is to spread the hate that infects their hearts to the rest of the world.
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Name : James D., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Gay, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 47, City : Summit, State : NJ, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College,every act of terrorism is a failure. terrorists think that they can call attention to their causes, often trying to have their organization taken seriously. this will always fail. they only succeed in casting themselves as either petty thugs or suicidal maniacs. the example between arabs and americans is really simple. we are accepting of differences. well, for the most part. we are a country of many races, religions, whatever. i’m not trying to generalize arabs, this would discredit me. but that culture is very strict. it’s either their way or death. they resent us. they also see their failed government. they see american influences in their country. they see americans enjoying the ‘good life’. they are jealous.
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Name : Susan, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Lesbian, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Wiccan, Age : 22, City : Parma, State : OH, Country : United States, Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class,(sorry for my English- it is not my mother touge) If you defind terrosit act as ‘an act of violence against non-combatans for a political goal’, then gaining that political goal would ebe the vicroty for the terrorist. not that it makes fighting terrorist simple, since you have to know what that political goal is, which is not always easy. Even if you know what the goal is- if you think the goal is negotiatible / legetimate, and terrorism is not: how do you solve the conflict without giving the message that terrorism ‘pays off’, thus encouring more groups to use terror in order to achive thier political goals?
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Name : Shosh, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Jewish, Age : 24, City : Tel Aviv, State : NA, Country : Israel, Occupation : Computer software, Social class : Middle class,Terrorism is a suprise attack. Terrorism is ‘succesful’ because it strikes a reaction in millions of people that they are never safe and can’t rely on their own government to protect them. Terrorism is not simply one country attacking another (as in the response above that depicts conventional war in the Middle East as terrorism just becuase it’s a foreign attack.) The key here is that in the case of Iraq, for example, they knew that they were going to be hit and had the time to prepare a best they could. 9/11 on the other hand, is defined as a terrorist attack because we did not know it was coming, could not prepare for it and it raised a fear in millions of Americans that they could never be safe and would never know when the next attack was coming. Successful terrorism also relies on the fluidity of it’s networks. Just as terrorism makes you unsure of when or where the next attack will take place, the U.S. has difficulty militarily targeting who is responsible for the attack. Individuals within the terrorist network are constantly moving, making sure that only a very selected few know of their whereabouts. This makes them difficult to target versus a war with another country where you can simply bomb key locations, such as a presidential palace or otehr government building. In addition, terrorist networks, while harbored by various countries, do not particularly identify with single country. This makes it difficult for the U.S. to attack them because they can not invade the soveirgn nation, unless that nation is clearly protecting the terrorist’s interests/ location. To sum – terrorism relies on suprise, breeds fear within a population that no longer feels safe in it’s daily activities and is virtually impossible to target using conventional means.
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Name : Jennifer H., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 22, City : Berkeley, State : CA, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Say I’m the little runty kid who lives on the corner. The bully on the block kicks my butt daily, mashes my nose in the dirt, takes my lunch money. When I’ve finally had enough, when I realize every day I don’t take a stand is just another day of getting my butt kicked, do I challenge the bully to a smackdown in the middle of the road at high noon? I do not! I wait til the middle of the night and then I burn his house down. If he survives, hopefully he’s learned to channel his aggression elsewhere. If not, after the house has been rebuilt, I burn it down again. After that, I seduce his sister. After that, his mom. Even if he -never- stops kicking my butt, I will have made him suffer for making me suffer. And at least, having fought back, I can look at my own self in the mirror without spitting.
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Name : j21155, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 34, City : chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Healthcare, Social class : Middle class,A terrorist victory is one where the ‘Attacker’ accomplishes his/her goals. Mainly to get you to do what they want you to do. UBL got a terrorist victory when George Bush was re-elected. He wanted him re-elected, therefore he sent a message saying he did not want him elected. After seeing what had happened in Spain, Americans were not going to allow a ‘Terrorist to control our election, subsequently we re-elected President Bush. Terrorists are in our society, neighborhoods, all around us. Gang members are terrorists. They cause you not to go someplace THEY like by being mean and evil enough to scare people off. Therefore it becomes theirs. Victory…They did not want you there, you no longer go there because of them. To win against a terrorist is to not play by their rules. We will not walk into a terrorist training camp and blow ourselves up to get them to stop. We will however not go into paralysis when we hear of one, we will take the fight to them. Remember this….A terrorist is a COWARD. He covers is face and hides. He fights only when he is going to win (Blows up in a crowd) , 3 or more to 1 person. In Fallujah, those are insurgents using terror techniques. They run and hide and cover their faces. Our Military is taking the fight to them and they run for a mosque to hide. They pick on women and children because they know they can win. They use a large force on men so they can win. Do not ever allow terror to stop you from doing what you want. Face them and show confidence and fight back when needed.
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Name : Bob, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Been called a redneck, Religion : Presbyterian, Age : 45, City : Belen, State : NM, Country : United States, Occupation : Corrections Officer, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class,
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