“Misunderstanding Terrorism”: How the Us vs. Them Mentality Will Never Stop Attacks

When there's a murder, the homicide detectives assigned to the case always search for the motive and assess the threat to the public objectively. But when it comes to jihadi terrorism, we're not supposed to acknowledge such things, at least in mainstream discourse. It's an off-limits subject in the corporate media. This is so because the public isn't supposed to know that their own government's foreign policy is a terrorist-generating machine.

 

Yeah, there's a reason that Obama carried out airstrikes in Muslim communities. Because Muslim communities are the origin of armies of jihadists fighting us and our allies.

Look, the title had me. It's important that we not look at our relationship with the Islamic community as an insoluble problem through anything except violence. But it's also important that we not pretend that our violence is the source of the problem.

Some people in the Muslim world want to work with us, so we work with them. Other people in the Muslim world see our presence as an unwelcome intrusion, and will commit atrocities to try and drive us away.

My point is that we can't look at "the Muslims" as a sort of victimized monolith. The history of Western-Islamic relations is not a simple story about Western imperialists enslaving millions of people, it's a complicated political, social, and cultural story like any other.

Muslim-Americans ARE part of "the in-group." They're Americans.
Guess what? There are tons of Americans from "in-groups" where suspicion is justified.

I'm no Islamophobe by an stretch of the imagination, but this kind of preachy moralizing is so separated from reality that one can't help but be a little sickened by it.

 

"Stopping" terrorist attacks is like stopping crime.

It will never stop.

Like crime, terrorism just needs to be dealt with.

Best thing is to be prepared for it and vigilant at all times.

Then stand ready and don't worry about it too much.

If you simply don't worry about terrorist then you have already beaten the terrorists.

They want to get into your head. If you don't let them, they fail. And then they die for nothing.

Terrorism is just a new form of crime. And like all crime you should be prepared for it if you don't want to become yet another crime statistic.

 

If you do anything different in the face of Islamic terrorism then the terrorists win.

Best thing is just to ignore them and go about your day as usual.

But you must also be prepared against this new form of crime as well.

 

It might never stop, but it's also currently at an intolerable high. Something does need to be done, and that "something" has to relate to political stability in the Middle East, especially the Arab world.

There aren't a lot of Turkish or Iranian terrorists, relatively speaking. There's a reason for that.

 

Total nonsense. First of all, I am not likely to do anything about terrorism. But governments are. Governments foil terrorist plots all the time. They're able to do that because they're actively searching for them.

 

Corporations are solely governed by profit motive. Thus they must play down terrorist risk.

But the citizens don't live their lives 24/7/365 within the confines of a corporation. At most they work in one 9 to 5. The rest of the time the citizens are on their own.

I have yet to see a company that lets employees bring guns into the office. Therefore you need a gun box secured inside your car for your concealed firearm while you work. And you should park the car where you can watch it while you work inside the office.

Going to work and coming from work you should have your firearm holstered at your side as usual.

And the rest of the 5 to 9 day you need your firearm by your side.

You can bet your bippy the terrorists will have their own firearms with them.

The only thing that can stop a bad guy (terrorist) with a gun is a good guy (you) with a gun who is a better shot and/or who has a better gun.

And if you are not armed then you are just easy meat for terrorists.

 

"Why they hate us," in the words of the Pentagon's Defense Science Board in 2003:

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Other things were added later like drone strikes and the invasion of Iraq.

 

Total nonsense.

There is nothing governments can do.

Big Brother can't help you with this.

You are on your own.

 

If/when terrorists hate "us" then "we" are winning because we are getting into their heads.

 

It will probably never stop.

Irish terrorism against the British has by and large stopped because the two sides have reached an accord of sorts. And eventually N.Ireland will be merged into the rest of Ireland.

But this option is not available for terrorism.

So it will probably never stop.

So it is foolishness to think you could make it stop when you cannot.

 

Are you saying that these policies shouldn't be changed? Are you more concerned with actually eliminating the threat of terror or "getting into their heads?" If these policies were changed the jihadis would have nowhere to hide.

 

I'm saying your whole thread is a paper tiger and a red herring.

You need to grow some balls and then get your own gun.

Then learn how to use it.

 

There's a lot that they hate about us. They believe that our liberal values are corrupt, and threaten to destroy the morality of their societies. They believe that Western economic systems promote decadence, and every skyscraper raised in Dubai is, to them, a blight upon their world. They hate their governments, that they view as illegitimate, corrupt, and too pro-Western. They hate our support for those governments, from Pakistan to Egypt.

We can draw up this list all day if you want. The truth is that there's some mixture of the two. They do hate what we're doing to their countries, not only militarily but culturally and economically.

Okay, so what do you suggest? That we cut ourselves off from them culturally and economically? What about those of them who DO want to work with us? Are they not the "real Muslims" that we're victimizing? Tens of millions of people in the Islamic world do want to Westernize, do want to liberalize, do want access to our culture, and do want the economic benefits of working with us. Are we not allowed to work with these people because their countrymen hate it? And if we do work with these people, and those who hate us take actions against our allies and ourselves, should we refrain from using force to defend ourselves and our allies?

 

The only good Islamic terrorist is a dead Islamic terrorist.

 

Not sure why you said that in response to my post, but whatever.

I like to believe that anyone is redeemable.

 

How does one exterminate cockroaches infesting their house?

 

That's certainly not a productive way of framing the problem.

I have a question. Do you say things like this just to irritate leftists, or do you actually think it's how you should think about problems like this?

I just want to understand how deranged the American right is becoming.

 

Just a simple question. If if irritates leftist that is their issue...

 

Alright, so let's unpack it. The implication is that the only way to deal with Islamic terrorism is to kill all of... who? Let's make a big circle, and include in that big circle all the smaller circles. The big circle is "Muslims". Within that circle is "Islamists", within that circle is "Jihadists", and within that circle is "Terrorists."

So, which of these circles lies in the "cockroach" camp?

Muslim terrorists?
Jihadists?
Islamists?
Muslims?

 

They hate us? Well, I hate them.

Do you think the radical Islamic bastards do the same navel gazing the West does? Do they wonder, "Why does the West hate us?". Of course not. They just want to kill.

 

A jahadist Muslim is a terrorist. Jihad certainly
Isn't for the benefit of US citizens, that's for sure.

The trick is distinguishing the terrorists from ordinary Muslims.

 

Your ideas?

 

That everyone/anyone is redeemable is unfortunately a myth particularly for these Islamic terrorist organizations.

It is foolishness to try and deal with them.

The most effective thing is to go to total war against them and wipe them all out, pig after pig, cow after cow, village after village, men, women, and their children.

Anything short of this is completely ineffective.

Unfortunately Western values do not allow Westerners to stomach what is needed.

 

Slow/double check immigration from Islamic terror hot spots. Oh wait, you oppose that ,and want to get as many potential terrorists as possible into the US. My bad.