Terrorism
That word is tossed about like a damn hot potato these days, applied to everything from legal militias to granny with a paring knife in her bag from the picnic that she forgot to take out before she hit the airport. But what is terrorism?
ter·ror·ism (tr
-r
z
n.
- The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.
Hmmmm. Somehow I don't think granny fits that mold.
The 'War on Terror' has become a vehicle for expanding government powers--ostensibly temporarily, but since the WoT will never be over so long as we dick around with soft tactics in the Middle East, in a few years people will become so accustomed to the new powers of government that even if the WoT is over some day, it won't even occur to them to make Congress repeal them. It's worth mentioning that the 'War on Drugs' did the exact same thing.
You're branded a terrorist for having the capability of perpetrating a terrorist act, not for actually committing one. That's a common government theme and one of my major fucking gripes (to put it mildly) on this blog. Realistically speaking I'm more 'dangerous' with no weapons than the overwhelmingly vast majority of the human population is while armed with a knife, so if granny with a knife is a terrorist, I guess I am too, only there's no way for me to turn off my capability. What about other martial artists? Should we sedate them? How about doctors, sports therapists, and nurses, with their dangerous knowledge of human anatomy? The list goes on. Better ban those aviation engineers because they know far too much about how to cripple and airplane to trust them!
Look. The terrorists that took over all those planes on 9/11 did so because the passengers did not resist (with a notable exception), not because they had terrorist knives, er, box cutters that made them supercriminals. There could be many reasons for them not resisting, such as if the terrorists killed the pilots and there was nobody else to fly the plane if the passengers did regain control, but we will never know. What I do know is that after that snafu, no self respecting airline passenger will just sit back and let a bunch of fruitcakes with utility knives take over their plane. The TSA bullshit--tossing your ass on a blacklist with no redress--is just one more measure of control the government has passed on us without preventing any real crime, and gee fucking whiz does it smack of police state or what? Toe the line or you'll be driving everywhere, buster--and that's just for now. What if they decide folks on the terrorist watch list can't be trusted to drive either? Or have access to their bank accounts?
