An open letter to my fellow American citizens re: terrorism
Dear United States of America,
It is my sad duty to inform you that on 9/11/01 the terrorists won.
I know this is going to be an unpopular point-of-view – but it is something I think we need to acknowledge, because it ultimately effects the lives we lead now, nearly ten years later.
After that day, we fundamentally changed the way we do things. We changed how we view our security, we changed how we attempt to protect ourselves, and we began to fear strangers. Which is EXACTLY what the terrorists wanted us to do.
From Dictionary.com: Terrorism
–noun
1.
the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.
2.
the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3.
a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.
And From the World English Dictionary: Terrorism
— noun
1. systematic use of violence and intimidation to achieve some goal
2. the act of terrorizing
3. the state of being terrorized
These definitions alone can only lead us to one conclusion – the terrorists won.
In the name of safety, the government created the TSA. Now they make you take off your shoes, endure full-body scans and pat downs, all in the name of security. To hell with civil liberties – we need to protect ourselves from the terrorist threat.
The terrorists won.
The Patriot Act allowed for all kinds of ways around the laws with regards to wire tapping, spying on our own citizens, and search and seizure procedures and so on and so forth. Our government became capable of investigating our lives with far less legal process than they needed prior.
The terrorists won.
How many people, when they see a clearly Semitic person or a woman in a hijab, or a man wearing a turban or keffiyeh, become nervous or suspicious of them instantly? How many times when people encounter a group of such people together does it raise their hackles.
The terrorists won.
An office called the Department of Homeland Security came into existence, warning us about ‘threats’ and putting us on terror alerts. They let us know when we need to be more vigilant, more ready to face possible dangers to ourselves.
The terrorists won.
Barriers around government buildings have been erected. Streets have been rerouted. There is a no-fly list for people who are under suspicion. There are billboards informing us of numbers we can call to report suspect bags, people, and vehicles.
The terrorists won.
We invaded Afghanistan to flush out the Taliban, and their Al-Queda allies. They fled into the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and now are a threat to both nations. It took us almost ten years to get Osama bin Laden, the figurehead leader of Al-Queda. But Al-Queda is still out there, laying low, plotting.
The terrorists won.
We invaded Iraq and removed Saddam Hussein, but have left the nation rife for Al-Queda to come in, and the various political and religious factions to vie for power and influence. We have destabilized them to a point where if we simply up and leave, they will most likely be torn by civil war.
The terrorists won.
We have fundamentally altered the way we live. We have allowed fear to dictate our actions, from travel to politics to ludicrous violations of our civil liberties. We now look for threats at every turn, enemies all around us, and hope that our own authorities have taken action to keep us safe. We have gone to war to disrupt them, but in truth we have actually strengthened them and their resolve.
Back in the 1980’s and before, terrorism was a state-sponsored event. We could point out that the terrorists were associated with a government, be it Iran, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, etc. We knew who the threats were, and while we did some bombings and launched attacks, we did not go to war. Not until they managed to come to our shores.
Israel has been enduring acts of terrorism since they first become an independent nation. Terrorism in other forms has been far more familiar to Europe and Asia. But it was not until the brutal, concerted attack that took down the World Trade Towers that we had been successfully struck by these foreign terrorists on our own soil (the previous attack on the towers was arguably not really successful, in that it failed at its goal, and Timothy McVeigh’s bombing was a homeland terrorist act).
How do you go to war with terrorists that are not clearly supported by another nation?
Al-Queda gets its money from wealthy sympathizers, who either agree with their anti-Western mission, or simply enjoy reaping benefits from the chaos that they create. They have no clear centralized leadership, no single base of operations. There is no government that is in firm and obvious supporter of Al-Queda, and there are branches of them almost EVERYWHERE in the western world. Even here in the US.
And all they have to do to continue to win is to make threats we react to. All they have to do is send out communiqués that change the way we drive to work, fly to vacation, look at unfamiliar Arabs in our cities. They don’t need to launch any attacks to disrupt us – all they have to do is play on our fear.
Terror, the root of the word terrorism, means, according again to Dictionary.com:
–noun
1.
intense, sharp, overmastering fear: to be frantic with terror.
2.
an instance or cause of intense fear or anxiety; quality of causing terror: to be a terror to evildoers.
3.
any period of frightful violence or bloodshed likened to the Reign of Terror in France.
Fear. It really all comes down to fear. And after 9/11/01, we let our fear overwhelm our senses. And that is EXACTLY what the terrorists wanted.
That is why they won.
Fear let us give up our freedoms, fear let us be searched in completely unacceptable ways, fear let us make war that was hardly necessary, fear has allowed people to come into power and stay in power who might otherwise never have been. Fear drives the war on terror, drives our national paranoia, is used by both the terrorists and our own government to control our actions.
Some definitions of Fear from Dictionary.com:
–noun
a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.
–verb (used with object)
to regard with fear; be afraid of.
–verb (used without object)
to have fear; be afraid.
Fear is the single greatest weapon anyone can use. It is a powerful tool that, when employed as a weapon, can do far greater damage than any bullet or blade. Fear changes how we act, how we live, how we think. Fear might even go so far as to dictate our choices of actions.
Terrorism is about making us fear. Terrorism is about making us paranoid, making us fearful of the unknown. Terrorism is making fear a weapon, fundamentally changing how we do everything we do.
Fear has been used not just by the terrorists. Our own government uses fear EVERY DAY to try and control us and our actions. The media uses fear to boost their sales, reader and viewership, and revenues. Fear sells – and we are buying.
I am claiming that the terrorists have won, and continue to win – and that is because they have caused us to live in fear. And fear is NOT how we should live our lives.
SO – how do we change this? How do we end their winning streak?
Courage. Peace. Love. Bravery. These are fear’s opposites. Fear means a lot of things, and as such has multiple opposites.
The first step is to identify our fear. We need to acknowledge when fear is dictating how we live and act, and we need to not be afraid of fear.
FDR said it best. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
After we identify our fear, we need to replace it. Courage, peace, love, bravery – some combination of all of these need to take the place of our fear. We need to think about instead of fearing, loving. Instead of being afraid, being brave. Instead of feeling fear, feel courageous.
Now I am not saying we should not be CAUTIOUS. Caution is a good idea. But the overreaction and constant fear mongering and saber rattling in the name of public safety is neither beneficial, nor useful in the war on terror.
See, the REAL war on terror should not be fought with guns and knives, bombs and missiles – it should be fought with the only things that can truly defeat the fear. Peace and love.
From Frank Herbert’s Dune – the Litany Against Fear:
“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”
I think this statement is pretty damned close to perfect. The best way to overcome fear is to acknowledge it, then let it pass.
I am not going all hippy-flower-childy on you. I am suggesting that we have a REAL problem, and that we need a REAL solution. The War on Terror is being fought in the wrong place, with the wrong weapons. And until we acknowledge and correct this, we will continue to LOSE.
The terrorists will win so long as we allow them to terrorize us.
So before you react in fear, before you let the press and the fear-mongerers influence you, before you choose that politician who has played on your fears – REMEMBER that the REAL war on terror begins with each and every one of us.
Until we face our fear, and stop allowing fear to move our lives, we cannot EVER win.
The terrorists won. But we can end their winning streak, and claim the victory. We just need to show them that their terror does not cause us to fear. And when we do not fear, we take away their power…and WE win.
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