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I read this abc news piece last night, saying Al Qaeda has suicide bombers ready to come to the US, Canada, Great Britain and Germany.
I went to bed praying they don’t succeed, but if they do what would the reaction be by the American people if someone made it into our country and got inside a shopping mall’s food court at a busy time and blew themselves and numerous others up at the same time?
What would be the reaction of the American people if a car bomb were driven into a building where there is a crowd of people?
How about if they got into a speedboat and attacked one of our ships docked in San Diego or any other Naval base, killing who knows how many people?
Sadly, my conclusion was this: People would say it was because we are in Iraq. Remember we hadn’t gone into Iraq when Mogadishu, the USS Cole or 9/11 happened, to name just a few recent terrorist incidents.
They’d blame Bush for not keeping us safe, forgetting how many attacks have been thwarted since 9/11.
Congress would surely have investigations, especially if the government buildings such as the Capitol were attacked—just as soon as they came out of hiding and changed their underwear.
And of course they would blame the porous borders, which probably would be a factor, but the blame for that can be shared by everyone—especially the far right wing of the Republican party. By far right wing I mean the Calebs of this world and Big Mo knows what I’m talking about. The ones who are so pure in their ideology they are not willing to even consider a compromise that can be improved upon later.
So, to the readers and bloggers on the right and left who frequent this site I ask you to think about this hypothetical and tell me, after searching your souls, what your reaction would be, other than maybe anger?
My first urge after the anger and sadness would be to go after the animals who ordered this no matter where they are and no matter what government supported them.
It certainly wouldn’t be to psychoanalyze them to see why they are angry at us, because it doesn’t take too much to work up the radicals.
Remember this is a debate and not a fight so no one should take personally what anyone else says.
Written by ~J~
Ayschlay Says:
June 19th, 2007 at 10:02 amVisit Ayschlay
“Sadly, my conclusion was this: People would say it was because we are in Iraq. Remember we hadn’t gone into Iraq when Mogadishu, the USS Cole or 9/11 happened, to name just a few recent terrorist incidents.”
No, but we’ve deeply involved in the Middle East and in predominantly Muslim states elsewhere (e.g., Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia) since the end of WW II, powerfully shaping their international relations, and intervening in their domestic politics in overt and covert ways.
Now, I’m not going to reduce attacks on Americans abroad or here to “blowback,” but neither will I completely separate those attacks from US foreign policy and make the trite argument that “they hate us.” It would be silly to reduce terrorism to a single factor.
~J~ Says:
June 19th, 2007 at 11:23 amVisit ~J~
You’ve given a non-answer answer, Ayschlay. I’m interested in what you think would be the reaction of most Americans.
And I do think hatred is a big part of it. What factors do you reduce terrorism to?
If not a group of men who hate anything non-Islamic and want to convert the world to Islam or kill them what is it you think causes this?
Who would you blame, and how can you blame unprovoked attacks on a Navy ship and soldiers on a humanitarian mission in Mogadishu being dragged, dead and almost naked through the streets while people cheered? How do you explain all the foreign aid we have given to Palestine to have them pass out candy on 9/11 in celebration?
The fact of the matter is they have no value for human life and you shouldn’t really have to dig deeper than that while you may be trying to justify their actions from previous years.
Sue Says:
June 19th, 2007 at 12:56 pmVisit Sue
Initial reaction: Anger and shock.
Unfortunately though, once the press (this is my opinion) finished explaining how we caused this to happen due to our involvement in the Middle East, I am afraid for many the anger would wash away. We would need to “understand” these terrorists, or is the proper term “insurgents” were so angered at our lack of understanding of their religion that they felt compelled to attack.
As to our intervening in the Middle East, look at Turkey, Lebanon (fragile), Afghanistan (infant government), Kuwait and even Pakistan. How would any of them faired if we had not assisted on some level? I found this http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0516/p09s01-cojh.htm to be interesting and tie in a bit to your question J if you wish to take a look.
What I believe we need to do in American is call terrorists just that..we did not put the sword in their hand nor the bombs on their body. It is not religion which drives them, it is hatred. And I for one would remain angry, very angry.
Guss Says:
June 19th, 2007 at 2:18 pmVisit Guss
I honestly think that we would probably do the same thing we did on 911.We would come together as a country and not party affiliation.
I think that most people would want the originating country of the terrorist to be attacked and destroyed, as we did then.
The only place where we would probably differ would be on attacking a country that had nothing to do with whatever attack happened.
It’s awful hard to answer a what if question because you really have no idea what your reaction would be until you experience the event that would cause you to react in the first place.
To make a long story short, I have no idea how most people would react. More than likely they would react the way you explain in paragraph 6, 7 and 8 and I would probably react the same. I don’t know.
Ayschlay Says:
June 19th, 2007 at 2:55 pmVisit Ayschlay
J, my non-answer is an answer. I don’t buy your hypothetical, in part because it could be anything, in part because of the way you framed it. I gather from your question that you don’t think enough people are taking the threat of another attack seriously (ergo it could happen again?), and you appear to believe, like Sue, that the people, herded by the overwhelmingly and unredeemably liberal press, will blame it on US foreign policy. . .again.
Read the press the day after 9/11. Though almost everyone shares the sense of horror, of tragedy, of loss, there’s hardly a consensus on what happened, or why, or what’s to be done, neither among journalists or readers.
As for your questions about the factors of terrorism–the issue here is that terrorism describes a particular type of warfare, a kind of “politics by other means,” but it does not mean that all terrorism happens for the same reasons, or happens under the same conditions, not to mention the fact that not all people agree on which actions constitute terrorism. The Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11 are considered acts of terrorism, but to what degree are they comparable?
~J~ Says:
June 19th, 2007 at 7:18 pmVisit ~J~
They are comparable to the degree someone took explosives of some sort and blew up buildings full of innocent people.
I mentioned nothing about newspapers or political affiliation.
I posed a hypothetical and asked what would be the reaction of each person if something like this happened. It was not a news question and it was not a political question, but a question of how one would feel if this happened and what one would want to do about it.
Would they blame the president and have hearings or would they unite and go after the terrorists wherever they are?
Remember Al Qaeda is in many countries so which country would we choose to attack and lay the blame of the festering society at their door?