But my definition of terrorism (and genocide) includes dropping atomic bombs on civilian populations. However, my definition does not take into account that it's not terrorism if the good guys do it and only the losing side ever commits war crimes.
"This column is dedicated to the proposition that Canada (and indeed the world) is in a crisis situation and that fundamental social change is required to remedy this situation." - The First Column, Lambda November 2, 1971 This blog is inspired by my column of the same name in the Laurentian University Newspaper, Lambda, from 1971-1973. The title refers to the concept of subverting the system from within. To read key excerpts from those columns read the first few posts in this blog.
2010-09-12
Who Are Terrorists Anyway
To me, terrorists were always people who targeted innocent civilians going about their daily lives. So how does a 15 year old child soldier accused of killing an American soldier in a battle become referred to as a terrorist.
But my definition of terrorism (and genocide) includes dropping atomic bombs on civilian populations. However, my definition does not take into account that it's not terrorism if the good guys do it and only the losing side ever commits war crimes.
But my definition of terrorism (and genocide) includes dropping atomic bombs on civilian populations. However, my definition does not take into account that it's not terrorism if the good guys do it and only the losing side ever commits war crimes.
This is a tricky one...
ReplyDeleteHow does one become a terrorist?
is it hatred?
What brings a person to kill another person?
is it unfairness in the system?
just learnt hatred?
There is no doubt that hatred has been around for thousands of years. Humans segment themselves into groups based on race, language, culture etc... We are silo seekers in some sense.
If you read the book Collapse, rise and fall of societies and Guns, germs and steal... mention is made that wars typically start from depletion of resources (ie peak oil).
As the poor struggle and the middle class deteriorates. Lack of investment in human capital and true knowledge growth, plus too much dependency on resources to grow ones economy is a very very dangerous thing. (we might be heading in this direction with the tar sands!!!!)
Need a balance in growth!
The book - Hot, flat and crowded has a great segment on how terrorism has grown in the middle east. Most of it from oil revenue. And, Osama Bin Laden, How did he make his money - construction!!! Argg, here we are dumping huge amounts into construction. It is well known that the mafia and mob segments grow during this economic cycle!
So, why do we continue to just dump money in without looking for high returns on investment or value added investments. We are just creating dependency and perhaps feeding "terrorism"?
Aren't groups like the mafia or mob just as bad as terrorists? They may not have dirty bombs, but they feed are youth drugs! Thus, crumbling a whole generation.
So, terrorism. My question is - who feeds them? Probably us.
Are we not the creators of our own misfortune?
as long as it makes someone money I guess.
We have to get back to the basics of life. Stop our dependency in some regards. Change and shit our wasteful and inefficiencies in business. Look at other ways of doing things. Do we really need all those vehicles on the road creating so much waste? Why is GDP so heavily dependent on wastefulness?
there has to be a better way.
Debt = waste = time for a change!