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What the Terrorists Want
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| Dale Gribble |
Full story with plenty of links
What the Terrorists Want
On Aug. 16, two men were escorted off a plane headed for Manchester, England, because some passengers thought they looked either Asian or Middle Eastern, might have been talking Arabic, wore leather jackets, and looked at their watches -- and the passengers refused to fly with them on board. The men were questioned for several hours and then released.
On Aug. 15, an entire airport terminal was evacuated because someone's cosmetics triggered a false positive for explosives. The same day, a Muslim man was removed from an airplane in Denver for reciting prayers. The Transportation Security Administration decided that the flight crew overreacted, but he still had to spend the night in Denver before flying home the next day. The next day, a Port of Seattle terminal was evacuated because a couple of dogs gave a false alarm for explosives.
On Aug. 19, a plane made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, after the crew became suspicious because two of the lavatory doors were locked. The plane was searched, but nothing was found. Meanwhile, a man who tampered with a bathroom smoke detector on a flight to San Antonio was cleared of terrorism, but only after having his house searched.
On Aug. 16, a woman suffered a panic attack and became violent on a flight from London to Washington, so the plane was escorted to the Boston airport by fighter jets. "The woman was carrying hand cream and matches but was not a terrorist threat," said the TSA spokesman after the incident.
And on Aug. 18, a plane flying from London to Egypt made an emergency landing in Italy when someone found a bomb threat scrawled on an air sickness bag. Nothing was found on the plane, and no one knows how long the note was on board.
I'd like everyone to take a deep breath and listen for a minute.
The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.
And we're doing exactly what the terrorists want.
We're all a little jumpy after the recent arrest of 23 terror suspects in Great Britain. The men were reportedly plotting a liquid-explosive attack on airplanes, and both the press and politicians have been trumpeting the story ever since.
In truth, it's doubtful that their plan would have succeeded; chemists have been debunking the idea since it became public. Certainly the suspects were a long way off from trying: None had bought airline tickets, and some didn't even have passports.
Regardless of the threat, from the would-be bombers' perspective, the explosives and planes were merely tactics. Their goal was to cause terror, and in that they've succeeded.
Imagine for a moment what would have happened if they had blown up 10 planes. There would be canceled flights, chaos at airports, bans on carry-on luggage, world leaders talking tough new security measures, political posturing and all sorts of false alarms as jittery people panicked. To a lesser degree, that's basically what's happening right now.
Our politicians help the terrorists every time they use fear as a campaign tactic. The press helps every time it writes scare stories about the plot and the threat. And if we're terrified, and we share that fear, we help. All of these actions intensify and repeat the terrorists' actions, and increase the effects of their terror.
(I am not saying that the politicians and press are terrorists, or that they share any of the blame for terrorist attacks. I'm not that stupid. But the subject of terrorism is more complex than it appears, and understanding its various causes and effects are vital for understanding how to best deal with it.)
The implausible plots and false alarms actually hurt us in two ways. Not only do they increase the level of fear, but they also waste time and resources that could be better spent fighting the real threats and increasing actual security. I'll bet the terrorists are laughing at us.
Another thought experiment: Imagine for a moment that the British government arrested the 23 suspects without fanfare. Imagine that the TSA and its European counterparts didn't engage in pointless airline-security measures like banning liquids. And imagine that the press didn't write about it endlessly, and that the politicians didn't use the event to remind us all how scared we should be. If we'd reacted that way, then the terrorists would have truly failed.
It's time we calm down and fight terror with antiterror. This does not mean that we simply roll over and accept terrorism. There are things our government can and should do to fight terrorism, most of them involving intelligence and investigation -- and not focusing on specific plots.
But our job is to remain steadfast in the face of terror, to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to not panic every time two Muslims stand together checking their watches. There are approximately 1 billion Muslims in the world, a large percentage of them not Arab, and about 320 million Arabs in the Middle East, the overwhelming majority of them not terrorists. Our job is to think critically and rationally, and to ignore the cacophony of other interests trying to use terrorism to advance political careers or increase a television show's viewership.
The surest defense against terrorism is to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to recognize that terrorism is just one of the risks we face, and not a particularly common one at that. And our job is to fight those politicians who use fear as an excuse to take away our liberties and promote security theater that wastes money and doesn't make us any safer.
This essay originally appeared on Wired.com.
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| Fir3start3r |
Of course this is what they want.
Terrorism isn't just about the act itself, but to play on the social psyche as well.
The only way to fight it is with action, like conquering any other fear.
Go about your business, be aware, but don't let them cripple you with hypothetical senarios that don't exist either. |
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| Purple |
| I think you should watch Farenheit 9/11, that guy has explained very nicely in the movie how Bush and his administration have encouraged this fear inside you guys; made you think like a small scared American and is profiting from it. |
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| hardcore trancer |
| quote: | Originally posted by Purple
I think you should watch Farenheit 9/11, that guy has explained very nicely in the movie how Bush and his administration have encouraged this fear inside you guys; made you think like a small scared American and is profiting from it. |
+1
I dont believe in this terrorism crap.I believe every action has a reaction and all these terrorism happen for a reason.
Look at Lebebon as an example.What do you think will happen to the chilren who lost their parents in the war by the Israelies?you think they're gonna grow up to love their neighbour?NOPE instead They will try to take revenge by anyway they can.
Bottom libne terrorism cannot be stopped.It has been part of the human history and will remain to be so.
War on terror= Excuse to the world. |
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| George Smiley |
Well that article is a load of simplistic bull. The goal of terrorists is to create terror/fear?! Jeez and this guy is supposed to be some kind of "security expert"! No mate, their goal (in this case) was to effect British foreign policy. Simple as. And what is he talking about when he says "The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred"?!?!?! In my experience I have only come across one terrorist group that acted only out of sheer hatred (ie killing the hatred was the goal) and that was the Thugee, an Indian terrorist group operating in the 13th - 19th century. All the rest in my experience have had political aims.
I mean come on! Look at the examples he gives at the start and then everyone says "oh don't let the terrorists win!" Win?! How the **** is Asian lookin people gettin thrown off a plane helping to force the government to pull troops out of Iraq?! Some people don't half make a load of crap up when it comes to analysing terrorism...
...and sure enough our resident terrorist "expert" Fir3start3r pops up to back up everything the journo said!!
:stongue: |
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| Dale Gribble |
| quote: | Originally posted by George Smiley
Well that article is a load of simplistic bull. The goal of terrorists is to create terror/fear?! Jeez and this guy is supposed to be some kind of "security expert"!
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Geez who pissed into your coffee? re: his credentials what are yours?
Hmmm? (tapping toes waiting...)
re: "simplistic bull" funny you say that as 9/11 wouldn't have happened if the cockpit doors were more secure as he had said for yrs. How is that for simple?
Got a problem with his view go post @ comments
| quote: | Originally posted by
hardcore trancer What do you think will happen to the chilren who lost their parents in the war by the Israelies?you think they're gonna grow up to love their neighbour?NOPE instead They will try to take revenge by anyway they can.
Bottom line terrorism cannot be stopped.It has been part of the human history and will remain to be so. |
+1
| quote: | Originally posted by Fir3start3r
Go about your business, be aware, but don't let them cripple you with hypothetical senarios that don't exist either |
But in other post(s) you say "what do you have to hide if your doing nothing wrong"
Thats saying its okay to give away our rights to privacy in an vain atempt to find them. Ask the FBI how good the data was when they got flooded with thousands of false leads which wasted time/money chasing innocence people.
How many people get murdered every yr in USA? How many people get killed by drunk drivers? I get tired hearing about how many got killed on 9/11 as a reason to take away our rights. |
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| shaolin_Z |
| ^^^ Neat sig dude. |
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| Fir3start3r |
| quote: | Originally posted by Purple
I think you should watch Farenheit 9/11, that guy has explained very nicely in the movie how Bush and his administration have encouraged this fear inside you guys; made you think like a small scared American and is profiting from it. |
Yea, there's a real winner of a movie. :rolleyes:
That thing as been debunked so many times...
Besides, everyone knows that fat slob is a quack! |
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| Fir3start3r |
| quote: | Originally posted by George Smiley
...and sure enough our resident terrorist "expert" Fir3start3r pops up to back up everything the journo said!!
:stongue: |
I am?
Cool! :toothless |
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| George Smiley |
| quote: | Originally posted by Dale Gribble
Geez who pissed into your coffee? re: his credentials what are yours?
Hmmm? (tapping toes waiting...)
re: "simplistic bull" funny you say that as 9/11 wouldn't have happened if the cockpit doors were more secure as he had said for yrs. How is that for simple?
Got a problem with his view go post @ comments |
My problem is with his over simplification of the "goals" of terrorists (in general, not just specific to these numerous Islamist groups he is refering to). Don't get me wrong, I agree with what he says at the end of his article, but it just gets to me when people try and give the impression that terrorists have the "goal" of creating fear. Well fear might certainly be a means (possibly demonstrated in Spain) but it is not a "goal" in itself. The writer gives the impression terrorist attacks are committed out of hatred without political aims and as I have said, I have only come across one such group (who no longer operate)
He seems to be grouping terrorists as one harmoneous group (as our resident expert Firestarter does as well) and that is no help to any discussion whatsoever as you simply cannot group together any terrorist groups unless you have a political motive to do so... |
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| George Smiley |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fir3start3r
I am?
Cool! :toothless |
No
No you're not |
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| Fir3start3r |
| quote: | Originally posted by George Smiley
No
No you're not |
Good; I never asked for it anyways ;) |
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