Re: Islam and Terrorism

Greetings;

Steve Marshall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> 
> Wake up and smell the coffee, Robert. Terrorism is not the recent
> arrival on the world scene that you indicate it is.

Perhaps not.  It may have begun with Cain killing Abel.  But as an
historic force in its current form, terrorism took on its present,
distinct identity in the Middle East, after a few decades of
Munich-olympics-style crimes, coalescing into an organized coherence
in about the 1990s.

> The US has been
> the main instigator of terrorism across the world for decades. As Pat
> pointed out, it helped train what became Al Qaida. But only recently
> have retaliatory acts of terrorism been carried out against US
> citizens, and on US soil.
> 
> If you want to stop terrorism, tell your government not to take part
> in it.
> 
It helps your case to blur distinctions, expanding your definition of
terrorism until it includes (however vaguely) anything the US did. 
This mentality is what leads people to say that any use of force is an
act of terrorism, even in self-defense.  It is the mentality that
blames rape on the raped victim (she should not have been there,
should not have dressed like that, must have done something to provoke
the incident blah blah blah), while the rapist laughs at both her and
at you.

In the meantime, the 3-part suggestion I made for helping to resolve
the crisis falls on deaf ears.  You cannot bear to discuss them,
because instead of blaming somebody you hate, it tackles the actual
issue instead.