Sick of terrorism!

While I love NPR, it has reminded me that some things are just tired. You know when there is one song they play CONSTANTLY on the radio.... Even if it's a good song, you start to hate it, because no song is enjoyable when it's played every other minute. Sort of like what happened to "Friends" and "Trading Spaces". Anyways, terrorism is the equivalent of these songs/tv shows in news story form. I am sick of hearing about terrorism and the war on terror. No one can actually say anything substantive on terrorism or the war on terror, because what is there to say about a war on a concept where there is no specific enemy or target and therefore no good way to fight the war.

I have decided there are about six stories on terrorism that simply keep repeating on the news.
1. "[fill in the blank western government] has tightened their [your choice of transportation] safety in hopes of preventing possible terrorist attacks."

2. "[fill in the blank US state] has arrested [1-9] men from [fill in the blank arab/south asian/muslim country] suspected of conspiring for a terrorist plot."

3. "A [arab/south asian/muslim] man is suing the [national/state/local] government for wrongly holding him in conjunction with a terrorist investigation."

4. "[fill in the blank government agency] is being restructured, hopefully a move that will improve homeland security and prevent future terrorist attacks."

5. "[fill in the blank senator/representative] has announced a [bill/opinion] [supporting/antagonizing] President Bush's war on terror."

6. "President Bush is on vacation in [fill in the blank place] despite [fill in the blank tragedy/mass protest/terrorist event] happening in his backyard."


Lastly, I have decided that I could definitely be a terrorist were I in some of the situations of the worlds' people. For instance, if I were a Palestinian refugee who grew up in a refugee camp my entire life, not granted citizenship in Israel or the country I was a refugee in, refused jobs, good education, or any way out of my plight, watching my parents suffer while Israeli Jews lived in the house they were forced out of... well, chances are I would be a terrorist. The same with many other situations around the globe. Peace talks would hold little promise of help. With no military, political, or economic power, what else is there left to do? I really do understand why people resort to terrorism. If your voice is constantly being muted by the international community, where do you turn? I am not condoning terrorism, just accepting that sometimes there is nowhere else to turn.

Before you say, "But never! I would never turn to terrorism! How barbaric!" consider other hard-to-face facts. A famous set of experiments known as the Milgram experiments were done after World War II. The motivation was to see how nice, normal German people could have turned into Nazi murderers. The experiments showed that almost all Americans would obey an authority to the point of physically harming another human (even while the person's screams were audible). Read about the experiments for more info. The study was very controversial, and I think most of that controversy was because no Americans wanted to admit that they could have been Nazis were they simply in a different place at a different time.

In any case, I have decided that we need to stop making such a big deal about terrorism. If the conditions are right, most people (including you and I) would become terrorists or murderers. So why don't we start working on fixing the conditions that produce terrorists? It's the only way to end this stupid, ridiculously nebulous war on a concept of terrorism.