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Date Posted: 21:23:46 03/12/03 Wed
Author: Perceptor II
Subject: Why terrorism, ALL terrorism, is evil.
In reply to: Goktimus Prime 's message, "My two cents" on 04:02:30 03/09/03 Sun

First of all, it is necessary to point out that terrorism is not always committed by the oppressed. Osama bin Laden is in fact quite wealthy, and most of the leaders in al-Qaeda are either Saudi or Egyptian, two countries that enjoy rather friendly relations with the United States. There are other examples in which a connection between acts of terrorism and oppression even more tenuous and laughable, such as environmental terrorism, murders of abortion doctors and church bombings in the American south.

It is also worth noting that oppression does not make terrorism necessary. There are examples of oppressed people escaping their oppression through nonviolent means, such as the efforts led by Mahatma Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Even in cases where the oppressed are being attacked by a superior military, there are options other than terrorism, such as sabotage and guerrilla warfare.

One must ask what is accomplished by terrorism. It is becoming increasingly clear that terrorism does win a whole lot of sympathy, and increasingly it is ineffective in getting people to comply with one's demands. What have Palestinian terrorists accomplished? They do not have their own nation, Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have not been withdrawn, Israel has elected a hard-liner and there has been a new round of military incursions into Palestinian territory. Anti-abortion terrorists have caused a lessening of sympathy for the pro-life position and has caused many to label peaceful abortion protestors as terrorists. Some even tried to pass a bill through Congress to curtail the civil rights of such protestors, which fortunately was struck down. Environmental terrorism have achieved similar results.

The motivation behind terrorism, the deliberate targetting of civilians and civilian targets in an attempt to terrorize a populace and force concessions, is not oppression. In order for a potential terrorist to decide to target people that have not harmed him, he must reduce their value as human beings in his mind. He must HATE them, and that hate is evil. Even in the Palestinian situation, where they are very much oppressed, the terrorism is a result of a hatred the Palestinians have for Israeli Jews, and even though that hatred is understandable because of their oppression, it is still wrong.

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