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Legal
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Terrorism BasicsTerrorism OverviewTerrorism has existed for centuries. Terrorism is not relegated to just third-world countries nor does it attract only the poor and uneducated. Terrorist organizations exist in almost every country and often are classless in its appeal. Young, old, rich, poor, are all attracted to terrorism. While some terrorist organizations do appeal to only one race or one ethnic group, many don’t care so long as you are willing to fight and die for their cause. The leaders of almost all terrorist organizations are intelligent; some even want to correct and improve the conditions under which their people live. However, some are into terror for the sake of terror and the thrill, the cause is secondary to the mayhem they can create or to the money they can make. For the thrill seeker, the primary goal has no noble end but is self-serving and satisfying only to that individual. Terrorism exists because it has proven to be successful. Nations have been created or reformed by terrorist activities. Terrorism exists because some people are never happy with the way things are. Terrorism exists because you simply can’t satisfy all of the people all of the time. Terrorism is not just performed by small, ill-equipped groups but it is often used by governments to control a segment of their own population. State-back terrorism is less recognized by the world community than terrorism employed by a group against a state or national government. Terrorism has become big business, at least where money is concerned. Not all large organizations have the built-in financial resources of al Qaida at their disposal. Osama ben Laden has the money to entice recruits, buy weapons and knowledge and the experts with that knowledge. So where do all these terrorist groups get their money. In some cases from sympathizers willing to pay but happy to stay on the sidelines. Some money comes from extortion and some from governments that assume if they help they wont be attacked. Some terrorist groups survive by becoming the covert mercenary arm for an established government. This way that government can direct and sponsor terrorism against its enemies while appearing to be an innocent bystander. The terrorists take all of the risks but the sponsoring governments reaps any rewards. Religion-sponsored terrorism is the most insidious and the most unpredictable of any terrorism because when you have the blessing of your God or at least his spokesman on Earth, then nothing else matters. Religion-sponsored terrorists will be the first terrorists to use what are weapons of mass destruction. Religious terrorists have no fear of retribution or prosecution because their actions are God-directed and their reward in the afterlife awaits their dedicated actions. I am not suggesting that any religion is bad but only that religion can be misinterpreted and misused too easily by people with a fanatical bent and a strict, narrow view of any religious writings. Fanatics believe in something so much greater than themselves that nothing else matters. Logic does not come into the equation except for planning operations and acts of terror. Logic is not used to view the end results or the possibilities of their actions because their God will make everything work out. Terrorists groups with huge, grandiose plans such as taking over the world must surely realize the odds are far above the million to one chance of success. Osama ben Laden falls into this group of terrorists with big plans but with no chance of making it happen. So why do they keep believing, keep trying? Terrorists look to the future where their imagined, idealized results are in place but for this to happen, the results must survive the transition from what is to what is imagined. If the results fail the transition period, their imagined, idealized world will not happen. Terrorists live for the day their work is done, everything else is immaterial and unimportant. Most terrorists fail to realize that the life of a terrorist organization is in years not decades, although a few have lasted centuries. Rebellion becomes a way of validating their life. Terrorists refuse to consider the short-term results of their actions because they only want to be responsible for the future where things are as perfect and their imagination. Author: Don Miller
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2003 Articles |
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