The Best Weopon Of Terrorists Is Fear

No matter who was actually behind 9-11, then the recent bombings in London, let's call them "terrorists" for the sake of giving them a non-committal title, had to be just delighted at hearing the constant media coverage of what they had done.

Fear has long been a politial weapon. People in general tend to fear the unknown and the uncontrollable. An act only has to be committed once, and the media will take care of the rest. It is now July, 2005, yet the attacks on the WTC of Sept. 11, 2001 (nearly 3 years later) are still a constant subject of conversation. Many new laws have been written around them. The new laws are constant causes of controversy within the nation, dividing it farther.

Now, new attacks happened in London 2 days ago, and within less than an hour, it was heard about all around the world. Talk of putting more and/or newer security on the busses and subways in London has already started, along with talk of doing the same in the U.S. Also, of course there are the comparisons to 9-11, bringing that back to life, as if it had just happened.

Just think about all the ongoing publicity that those 2 acts have gotten already. And, I'm sure that the London one will be covered extensively on the news, and the rest of the media for years to come.

So, although it is extremely tragic for those who were directly involved, in both instances, and I am in no way trying to make light of the suffering of the victims, their families and friends, please also think about the fact that the number of people killed and/or injured in either of these incidents is in truth considerably low in comparison to the number of American deaths (not including war) that occur naturally in any given year. Each one of those deaths are equally tragic to the families and friends involved. But, unless you read the obituaries of the whole country each day, no one of the general public usually is even aware of the suffering that has gone on for each of these other individuals and their families (with the exception of a few "high profile" people, such as Terry Schiavo).

So, my point is that while I do not believe that anyone needs to kill anyone in the first place, for any reason, what these terrorists did was to kill a number of people, which is tragic and terrible. But, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, the number not nearly as high as those killed in drive-by shootings, drug overdoses, cancer, other fatal illness's, car accidents, heart attacks, and many other things that happen, rare or common to people to cause their death, etc., etc..... each year. The victims of 9-11 and those in London, were people, human beings, no better, no worse than anyone else that loses a life or a loved one. As a matter of fact, no one is any "better" or any "worse" fundamentally than another. But, the terrorists know that it only takes one act, maybe 2, to cause havock and fear within the rest of the world. The fear of the unknown and uncontrollable sets in, and all the terrorists have to do is sit back and watch their TVs. It starts a domino effect. There is the initial fear, confusion, grief and feelings of helplessness. Then the conviciton to let it never happen again sets in. Then comes the anger. Eventually, the attacked country will attack another country,. Eventually, most of the world is in one way or another empboilled in a bloody, endless war that will take the lives of at least tenfold the amount of lives that were taken in the initial terrorist act.

When a "non high-profile" death occurs, such as it does to many people on a daily basis, close family is usually notified, there is probaby an obituary placed in the local newspaper, followed by a funeral for those who were close to that particular person. Some grieving follows, within the circle of people who had been close to the deceased, and for those who did not know the deceased or their family, life goes on as usual for most of the rest of the country and the world.

So, if the people killed in terrorist attacks were handled the same way as the rest of the deaths in the world, well then, the terrorists would get awfully bored, seeing that there was no reaction to what they did. They can't possibly do something spectacular very often, so they have to rely on the fear of the people in the aftermath. And on the media to keep it going and escalating. Until everyone (most, at least) are convinced that they need to be constantly prepared for a terrorist attack at any time, any place. Then the "Terrorist Alert Level" gets raised, and that instills even more fear, regardless if the majority of the people know what the colors mean. The fact that it was raised at all, means that they had really get busy preparing.

How in the world does a person "prepare" for a terrorist attack? Do they completely leave their jobs, their homes, every aspect of the live that they have built for themselves and move to a remote island? Remote islands are just as subject to be attacked.

Maybe if the media would take the sensationalism out of the attacks, that alone might the the best prevention for another one.

CyberKat



[edit on 11-7-2005 by John bull 1]

Fear out powers every other method of control.
With fear you can make a person do just about anything. In the last Federal election in Canada it was fear Vs. anger. Yes, fear won, and will always win.

What I don't understand is why Al Quida is stupid enough to attack a nation days away from pulling out their armed forces in the middle-east? The U.K. had the final decision to pull their forces out because of public uprises against the war. Now, Al Quida is the leading 'terrorist' group in the world, these people are NOT stupid, no matter what your prejudices may think.

Why, would such highly trained 'terrorists' attack and provoke MORE bloodshed in their homeland when the people they attack are days away from getting out of their homeland? They do not benefit, so WHY? I will tell you why, its a matter of Cui Bono. (Latin for 'who benefits') The easiest way to figure out a perpatrator it to find out whom benefits from the act!

Who benefits from the war on terror in general? We get to keep the 'terrorists' at bay, We get to provoke more fighting to meet our oil demand, We get to establish our ways of government in foreign land and insure democrasy in more parts of the world to supply our mass corperatization.

COME ON PEOPLE! Get a grip, we had provoked the war, we committed 9/11 and now, WE are bombing england! It is all for fuel, democrasy and control. HE lied, THEY died, keep the peasants TERRIFIED!

The way I see it, more people were killed in car crashes in England the day of the bombings. Should I not go outside in case I get run over?

Ill just go on as normal and these people will have no effect on my life, if they do then they win.

I think the terrorists are hearing exactly what they want, when after an attack citizens, the media, and liberal polticians alike say "we need to leave Iraq." Their cowardly attacks should only strengthen our resolve. I lost a neighbor in the WTC on 9/11. I can't imagine what it must be like to lose a loved one in a senseless act of terror, however. That being said, we still MUST NOT give them what they want- and that is fear and retreat. These radical fundamentalists won't stop with our withdrawl from Iraq and Afghanistan. They won't stop until Israel is wiped off the face of the Earth. They won't stop until they control the entire Middle East, half of Africa, South East Asia, and most of Europe. They want their Taliban-like rule of law to spread to all corners of the globe. They won't stop until every religion and every freedom, other than strict Islamic law, is wiped from the face of this Earth.

But if your goal is to grow a beard or cover yourself with a burka, then go right ahead and do as the terrorists ask. If you want your daughter and your wife's clitoris removed so they can never experience sexual pleasure, then go right ahead and give up like the terrorists want. If you think people's hands should be cut off for shoplifting a candy bar and that women should be gang-raped for cheating on their husbands, then go right ahead... you know the rest.

I, for one, would sooner die in a terror attack or die defending my freedoms here at home than give in to fear of being attacked.

Originally posted by Rasputin13
I think the terrorists are hearing exactly what they want, when after an attack citizens, the media, and liberal polticians alike say "we need to leave Iraq."
I, for one, would sooner die in a terror attack or die defending my freedoms here at home than give in to fear of being attacked.

I totally agree with you! The very definition of terrorism is instilling fear; if they succeed in to doing that, they've won. Life goes on, people. You can't be scared all the time.

Originally posted by yinyang04011
I totally agree with you! The very definition of terrorism is instilling fear; if they succeed in to doing that, they've won. Life goes on, people. You can't be scared all the time.

Thats what the governments do, keep on telling us the next attack is round the corner so we accept all kinds of clampdowns and restrictions on our rights.

"Patriot" act 1 and 2, ID cards etc

Their willing to die for their so-called cause, but they insist that innocent people die for their so-called cause too.

What about Anti-Terrorist - Terrorists.

Dallas

Originally posted by PsychevolvedApe


Why, would such highly trained 'terrorists' attack and provoke MORE bloodshed in their homeland when the people they attack are days away from getting out of their homeland? They do not benefit, so WHY? I will tell you why, its a matter of Cui Bono. (Latin for 'who benefits') The easiest way to figure out a perpatrator it to find out whom benefits from the act!

Who benefits from the war on terror in general? We get to keep the 'terrorists' at bay, We get to provoke more fighting to meet our oil demand, We get to establish our ways of government in foreign land and insure democrasy in more parts of the world to supply our mass corperatization.

PhychevolvedApe, IMO, your post is right on the money. I, personally agree with you, I have followed the school of thought that questions, "who benefits?" and have come to the conclusion from the beginning just who was really behind 9/11, the same way back when the OKC Federal building was blown up under orders by the FBI, and again with the London bombings.

You and I and a good part of ATS also believe that this is a much more likely scenario. However I refrained from putting that in my post because of a couple of reasons. For one thing, there have already been numerous threads about 9-11 and "who-done-it". I didn't want this to be one more of those. Also, not everyone here thinks the same way that we do on this subject. I was trying to make a separate point, a post that perhaps every-one could follow without getting into a heated debate. (At least not the
same debate.)

COME ON PEOPLE! Get a grip, we had provoked the war, we committed 9/11 and now, WE are bombing england! It is all for fuel, democrasy and control. HE lied, THEY died, keep the peasants TERRIFIED!

Again, agreed. I couldn't help laughing at your last sentence. I've heard a lot of things like that, but this is great! "He lied, They Died, Keep the Peasants Terrified!"

It's sad, but unfortunately, IMO, so true

Originally posted by Rasputin13
But if your goal is to grow a beard or cover yourself with a burka, then go right ahead and do as the terrorists ask. If you want your daughter and your wife's clitoris removed so they can never experience sexual pleasure, then go right ahead and give up like the terrorists want. If you think people's hands should be cut off for shoplifting a candy bar and that women should be gang-raped for cheating on their husbands, then go right ahead... you know the rest.

Hi, I just want to clarify something. I hope that your use of the word, "you" in the above quote was directed at the public in general, and not at me personally. Just because I already have too many other things to worry about, that the last thing I have ever taken any time to worry about is a "terrorist attack"!

Just for the record.........

CyberKat,

The only weapon of the terrorists is fear, by definition.

They're never going to beat us by killing a few dozen or even a few thousand of us once in a while. The only way they can win is to scare us into changing our lifestyle, behavior and policies to suit their own agenda.

Originally posted by Flyer[\i]
Thats what the governments do, keep on telling us the next attack is round the corner so we accept all kinds of clampdowns and restrictions on our rights.

"Patriot" act 1 and 2, ID cards etc

Yes, I often think that the only reason for these attacks is for the purpose of changing America from a free Republic, to some kind of totalitarian government. The more the government can keep the people scared, the more the scared idiots plead the government for "help", which is what results in such atrocities as the Patriot Act, etc....

Originally posted by djohnsto77
CyberKat,

The only weapon of the terrorists is fear, by definition.

They're never going to beat us by killing a few dozen or even a few thousand of us once in a while. The only way they can win is to scare us into changing our lifestyle, behavior and policies to suit their own agenda.

Yes, that was exactly what I meant in my original post. You just put it better in a lot less words. You know, if people would just stop and think for a minute about the whole situation, how they are just causing themselves and dragging us right along, to give up more and more of our civil rights, just by giving into this irrational fear. And if they really thought about it, it is irrational.