What our leaders and pundits never let slip is that the terrorists -- whatever else they might be -- might also be rational human beings ; which is to say that in their own minds they have a rational justification for their actions. Most terrorists are people deeply concerned by what they see as social, political, or religious injustice and hypocrisy, and the immediate grounds for their terrorism is often retaliation for an action of the United States. .
-- William Blum.
Do Terrorists Have Legit Reasons (Hover)
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Ofcourse I am in agreement with the arguements against such statements. Terrorism is actions against the United States. Then you would have to say that only Americans are affected or harmed by terrorism. The world is harmed by terrorism and there is no legitimate reason for anyone to become a terrorist.
International Level: New Activist / Political Participation: 14 1.4%
I think the quote did have one valid point: Within their minds they believe what they're doing is right. We may do things that the terrorists would look at and this it was completely irrational and completely stupid, but within our own minds and with our beliefs it's right. I think that is the perspective people need to look at when they try to talk down terrorists from their actions. From what I've seen, when messages are aimed at terrorists, it's spoken in a way that assumes the terrorists know they're doing the wrong thing. It needs to be approached in a manner of teaching them that killing people and torturing people is wrong. It may not help, but it would be a better approach than just assuming they know they're in the wrong. A lot of children are raised in the mindset and with the teaching of terrorism, and they don't know how to think any differently. We should try to spend more energy on teaching the differences between right and wrong over there, rather just condeming and reprimanding.
"We never see the smoke and the fire, we never smell the blood, we never see the terror in the eyes of the children, whose nightmares will now feature screaming missiles from unseen terrorists, will be known only as Americans."
-- Martin Kelly
A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force: Unknown
Well, I think it depends on the person looking at the situation. Someone might call somebody a terrorist, but another person might call him a patriot or a freedom fighter...
I personally do not think that the people who we refer to as terrorist have a good enough reason for the type of attacks they produce, but that is my perspective. During the revolution in the USA, the British probably would have labeled the American Freedom Fighters terrorists as well.
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