Comments on: Terrorism Begins At Home (or “Kill or Be Killed!”)

By: Artemis

Artemis — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:40:28 +0000

Rage and hopelessness, as far as I understand from the psychological view, are caused by underlying fear. A friend who worked on the police force informed me that it was hatred driven by fear that caused violent behavior.

Fear of not getting what we want leads to rage, etc.

By: dzho

dzho — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 04:03:53 +0000

I disagree. Most Americans, regardless of what George II tries to sell us, don’t seem to be afraid. Rather than ‘fear’ I would look at ‘hope’. Back in the 60s, the basic assumption was that with hard work we could make a better life for ourselves, and the government supported us in this. In the 90s I had many arguments with younger people who were sure this was no longer possible, but after the past 8 years I’ve had to shut up. Not only is there little or no hope of things getting better, but unless we are billionaires the government has become our enemy. It’s easy to understand bitterness, and a desire for revenge, even if it is misplaced. Suicide takes courage, and these people are not driven by fear, but by rage and hopelessness.

By: grumpypilgrim

grumpypilgrim — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:53:12 +0000

My question is why so many Americans are so frightened about terrorist attacks when the odds of them ever encountering such an attack is vanishingly small. If we look at, say, the fifty most likely causes of death in America, “terrorism” wouldn’t even be on the list. Yet, according to an apparently large percentage of the population, it should be the nation’s top priority, and we should spend “whatever it takes” (whatever that means) to prevent it. Meanwhile, Americans are dying left and right from all sorts of preventable causes, not one of which receives even a tiny fraction of the money Bush spends in Iraq. Likewise, I seem to hear every day about all sorts of other problems…mortgage foreclosures, global warming, inflation, identity theft, gun slaughters on college campuses…yet where is the national priority to address these problems?

By: Niklaus Pfirsig

Niklaus Pfirsig — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:08:04 +0000

The whole point of terrorism is to leverage the media so a relatively small group of people can make their political plea to the masses. By providing this coverage, the media is being completely and willingly complicit in aiding and abetting the terrorists.
The real question is:

Who are the real terrorists?

Who benefits from all this? Not the average Iraqi citizen who considers it a good day if they don’t get wounded or killed. Not the average American who is going to bear part of the cost of the billions spent on fighting shadows. Not the average soldier, who risks life and limb so they can be sent back into harms way again and agian, or unitl they are “all used up” at which time they find the VA too underfunded to take care of them.
The ones that benefit the most from all of this are people that have wormed their way into lucrative contracts with the government, and have found that they can syphon trainloads of money form those contracts as long as the war continues.
These people never go near a combat zone, never take any risk, but reap great rewards for making others take the risks.

America, land of the free, where everything is for sale, including the government.

Kinda sucks, Don’t it.