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Terrorist...let's not grey the meaning, please

speaking_up posted on May 12, 2009 | views: 151 | Tags: terrorists, NYC, terrorized, Terrorist, politics, Speaking UP, growing up, responsibilities
*sigh*
 
I just read an old post, and am reprinting my response here.  I think it is an important topic.
 
This was about a photo op by the BO administration that supposedly terrorized New Yorkers.
 
Those are big loaded words.
 
It reminds me of an experience I encountered at a teaching job I accepted last January.  I was given four adult students, all on some form of free government funding, and my task was to teach these people business applications so that they could gain more meaningful employment.  I came into the job after they had 'supposedly' already learned Introduction to PCs, Windows XP, and Word 1.  These folks had already (in less than a month) gone through 3 instructors.
 
There I was, about to introduce the gals to Word Level II and Excel, and I found two of them were unable to manover a mouse, had no idea how to minimize a window, and were showing signs of intoxication (drugs).
 
I spent my first week assessing the degree of retardation (or intoxication) on my students...and finally said to one of them, "ummm, I think I would like to send you to the career centre for an assessment to determine if this is the training that would be right for you."  My words, exactly.  I already know it is politically incorrect to directly tell the loser that she was drugged up and to stop wasting my time. 
 
The next day this gal contacted the director of the small training school, and told my boss that I had "terrorized" her by insinuating she was stupid (I wasn't insinuating she was stupid, I was saying she needs an assessment for career choice - I wanted it to come out her brain was fried but I never told her that).  Anyway, she went on to whine to the director that she was unable to come into school that day because of the new terrorizing instructor.  Me! 
 
The director, not wanting to lose her government funding, calmed her down, told her she was right to be feeling bad, and the teacher (me) would get a good talking to.  I was talked to and told to handle this one carefully.  Huh?
 
Four weeks later I quit.  Whiners who cannot be responsible or accountable irritate me to know end, and I won't be a part of sluffing people through a system just for governement funding.  Not only had my two druggies wasted almost every moment of my time, they disrupted the other two students so much that they were unable to focus on learning.
 
People, we need to man up!  There are a whole lot worse things going on in life to be terrorized over things we really know are just an excuse to dump our baggage onto someone else.
 
As long as people cry terror...oh god I don't even want to finish...it was a sickening read, for me.  But not because of anything BO said or did.
 
*******************************************************
 
Question to Ponder...
 
I wonder how many men, women and children in Iraq are terrorized every freaking single day by american machinery flying overhead.
 
I don't think BO has a chance.  It seems the expectations are he cures the international and economic ails of america immediately - or he is just our newest scapegoat to dump on. 
 
I hardly think the woes of this country can be fixed in 100 years, let alone a 100 days.  And I don't blame any president...I blame us and our arrogance and narcissism, and our greed as a people overall.
 
When will we take responsibility for our own feelings and actions?  Why do we cave in to cry-babies the way we do?
 
Terrorized in New York?  COME ON!!!
 
What are the damages?  Did anyone go to the hospital with a meltdown?   Did anyone jump out of a building over the incident?  No.  There are no damages.  Just words.  Loaded words.


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Comments

  • stopmediabias said on May 12, 2009....

    I could agree with you if it was any other city in the world but New York City where the worst terrorist attack in history was put on by really huge planes. 

    I think the whole thing was just stupid but I don't think terrorize is too strong of word in this context.  It would be if the terrorists used bombs in the subway versus big airplanes.

    As far as Iraq, those American machinery have freed those people from what was truly terrorizing them, Saddam and his wacko sons. 

  • kevinunknown said on May 13, 2009....

    I really do love the title of this post  “Terrorist...let's not grey the meaning, please”

    You might find this interesting to know but academically and form the prospective of international relations there is no international definition of terrorism. In fact every country has a different definition

    As the saying goes “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” so for you to say “Terrorist let’s not grey the meaning” is rather ironic considering that the word “terrorist” is by its very nature a very grey word with no universal definition.

  • speaking_up said on May 13, 2009....
    @stop....well, I dunno, you try telling those kids all about the good those planes are doing for their country.
     
    @kevin...your point was missed by me completely in the context of what I was writing about...could be I'm just waking up...
  • travelr712 said on May 16, 2009....
    I wonder how many men, women and children in Iraq are terrorized every freaking single day by american machinery flying overhead.
     
    you know, whenever i've brought this point up, the people who screamed 'terrorist' about the plane incident immediately switch gears and say something as incredebly lame as 'oh, do you think we shouldn't fight terrorism? are 3000 people's lives worth nothing?' as if that's some worthy rational for what we've done over there in the last 6 years. own up to the culpability people! if planes flying around the statue of liberty is terrorism, then planes flying over iraq and afghanastan dropping bombs on civlilians is terrorism to the nth degree!
  • speaking_up said on May 16, 2009....
    trav...I`ve written on a lot of blogs concerning terror...bloc`s always has a good one going...and I know the excuses and smokescreens all too well.  One thing I remember saying after I did some wikapedia research was that to our 4000 troops killed in iraq, they have tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands dead.  It is insanity to the nth degree, if you ask me.  Not to mention overkill.  Not to mention the torture.  Not to mention the families and kids. 
     
    PEOPLE IN THE WEST JUST DON`T SEEM TO GET THAT THESE ARE REAL PEOPLE TOO!  PEOPLE WITH FEELINGS AND FAMILIES AND DREAMS...
     
    I knew we were on the same page from the moment I saw your first blog.
     
    Check out blocs recent topics and photos of the shame...
  • travelr712 said on May 16, 2009....
    look what 12 men with 4 airplanes did to our country speaking. i'd say that's an overwhelming victory on their part.
     

    An analysis released by a Democratic senator found that Vice President Dick Cheney's Halliburton stock options have risen 3,281 percent in the last year, RAW STORY can reveal.

    Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) asserts that Cheney's options -- worth $241,498 a year ago -- are now valued at more than $8 million. The former CEO of the oil and gas services juggernaut, Cheney has pledged to give proceeds to charity.

    they were the only contractor in iraq, building bridges, dams and power plants that were blown up within a month. all on no bid government contracts. wanna know where our tax dollars went? into the pockets of bush, cheney, and all their minions.

  • stopmediabias said on May 17, 2009....

    Speaking-You guys didn't want to go into Iraq, which means you wanted to leave it the way it was, starved by UN sanctions, tortures, murders, and dread and fear on a daily basis under a leader who was responsible for planting millions.  What was your solution to Iraq? 

    Travel-Who else is going to the jobs that Halliburton does?  Plus I think President Obama just broke wind, you better hurry if you want to tell everyone what he ate.  

  • travelr712 said on May 17, 2009....
    the point is not whether we wanted to go into iraq smb, the point is that we went based on lies and hidden agendas. those close to the top level of the administration made millions. and we'll never know who else would have done the job, the contracts were never opened up for bids. i consider that to be criminal activity, but i believe you hold with the condi rice ideology, if the president does it (as long as they're republican) then it's legal.
  • speaking_up said on May 17, 2009....
    Frankly, when 9/11 happened, I didn't even know Iraq existed...my mind was on the training grounds in Afganistan...it blew me away we were not putting every single penny into that hell hole.  You talk about Iraq and SH and his boys and the torture he was inflicting upon his own countrymen...men...men...
     
    but what about the 50% of the population being wiped out in Afganistan by talibn policies...
     
    1.  No education at all for women.
    2.  ALL Women to be 'invisible' when outside the home 100% of the time (veils that are so heavily hooded women just didn't want to go outside at all).
    3.  No women not allowed to see a male doctor
    4.  No women not allowed to be doctors - or teach or nurse - or work.  All of these issues left up to angry terrorizing MEN.
    5.  All women being hung, stoned, killed if raped
    6.  9 - 12 year old girls being married off to 65 year old hasbeens
     
    I could go on and on and on.  the fact is, if you cannot relate with a certain culture or gender, it really doesn't matter to you (you are not alone, sadly).
     
    However, women are half the human race...it is a far more serious crime than genocide.  genocide only gets rid of certain races or groups.  but women are 50% of the freaking population!
     
    And, while some rules have relaxed since us, canada, and britian went in there...but not enough to make life worth living for the female gender.
     
    I suggest you pick up a book or two of biographies of females living or who have escaped afganistan.
     
    And then, there are those them there training grounds for terrorists.
     
    Boys are raised to believe they are superior, that no one matters but them, and their heads (from the time they are born) are being taught pure hate toward the west.
     
    I'd say a proactive thing to do would be to get the hell in there and stop the madness before the breeding ground of terrorist babies become men.  10 - 20 years from now, I see no hope with the results of what is going on in afganistan now.
     
    Instead of focusing all of our money, troops, energy on a wild goose chase in iraq for WMD that did not exist.  And, if they did exist, still does not trump what is going on in afganistan and now pakistan (it spreads, grasshopper...the terrorists are spreading because we did not nip it in the bud where it mattered).
  • travelr712 said on May 17, 2009....
    the really interesting thing about that, speaking, is that we were in afghanistan for nearly 2 years before the iraqi invasion, and had the taliban rounded up to a small area, nearly had them wiped out. but bush pulled the troops out of afghanistan in 04 and sent them to iraq, allowing the taliban to regroup and grow, spread across afghanistan, and now they're across the border of pakistan where they weren't before. i'm convinced that if we had finished in afghanistan (where we had supported the taliban against the russians with weapons, money and training), iraq could have been dealt with in a way that wouldn't have killed hundreds of thousands of their citizens, and terrorism wouldn't be anywhere near as big a problem in the world as it is now.
  • kevinunknown said on May 17, 2009....

    Travelr you’re wrong about the Taliban being trained and backed by the Americans. I can’t blame you as this is a common misconception of history which does have some remote seeds of truth in it.

    During the soviet war in Afghanistan due to a number of political events in America the CIA were banded form assisting the Mujahedeen directly early on in the soviet occupation and the afghan civil war. To compensate for the Americans roped in the help of the Pakistani intelligence services the ISA and some help from the Saudis to help train the Mujahedeen. Most of the work done by the CIA was funding and some training inside Pakistan.

    In order to carry out training inside Afghanistan the Americans called in the help of British Prime Minister Margret Thatcher who covertly send member of the SAS into Afghanistan to help train the Mujahedeen.

    Now the not to dwell on facts but Mujahedeen roughly means someone who fights in a Jihad. And “the Mujahedeen” were made up of a large number of tribes men who fought together to fight a common enemy the soviets and the government they had put into power. In 1989 when the soviets left and the afghan government fell apart the British and Americans lost interest as they had got the soviets out.

    This however had a catastrophic effect on Afghanistan because with no real government the tribe’s men that had made up the Mujahedeen started fighting ageist each other for power. Angered by this infighting a Mullah named Mohammad Omar lead is followers to punish these tribes men and led a wave of violence ageist them over the early 1990’s imposing strict sharia law against the Afghan people he called his band of followers the Taliban (roughly translated to the educated however the term is open to interpretation) Some of the consequences of which are outlined in speaking up’s last post.

     This also caused many former members of the Mujahedeen to join the Taliban because they agreed with their political and religious aims and. as many of them received some indirect training form the Americans During the early 1980’s this is the only sense in which the Americans assisted the Taliban. In my view this is so intangible that it is wrong to say that the Taliban were created by the Americans.

    Also it is worth pointing out that the Taliban have always been in Pakistan so you are also wrong to say that they are where they never used to be. I would strongly suggest you read a book on the history of radical Islam and try to approach this topic form a a-political stance

  • travelr712 said on May 17, 2009....
    well i never said the taliban were created by the americans, just that they were backed and trained by us. now, it is true that i overgeneralized in that statement, and you've provided much more accurate information here, but the end result did not change, no matter what label they are currently under. the militant wing of the taliban was primarily trained, armed and funded by america during their fight against afghanistan. in the same way, hamas was a militant wing of the PLO, and has  become the governing party of palestine. but as with all convoluted situations in a foreigh country, the conclusions drawn are based on the interpretations of the particular set of facts reviewed. ours seem to differ somewhat. in any case, none of these viewpoints change the fact that america had the taliban quelled in afghanistan and nearly wiped out when the american troops who were fighting that war were redeployed to iraq, and had they been allowed to finish their mission, the state of middle eastern terrorism would be much different now. again, a somewhat overgeneralized statement for sake of space on a blog. feel free to provide any details that might enhance or clarify kevin.
  • kevinunknown said on May 17, 2009....

    Thank you i appreciate that comment very much. On your point about America letting the Taliban regroup you might also find it interesting to know that in approximately December of 2004 whilst operating under Task force 121 a British Special Boat Service (SBS) patrol had according to some very reliable sources had “eyes on” Osama Bin Laden. When they contacted there American bosses for permission to naturalise him they were told to hold off until a Delta Force squad could move in. Delta Force took an hour to arrive and by the time they got there he had escaped over into neighbouring Pakistan. Due to the time it took them to permission to enter Pakistan form their commanders by the time they got permission they had lost the most wanted man in the world and all over America’s ego their desire to be the one’s to catch Osama Bin Laden

  • travelr712 said on May 17, 2009....
    yes, i did know that kevin. it wasn't the only time bin laden has been in the gun sights of one of the 'coalition of the willing' military forces and been told to basically let him go. my belief is, if ben ladden were confirmed to be killed, american involvment in the 'war on terror' would end. sort of like if hitler would have been killed in 1942, the war wouldn't have gone on till 1945. you gotta have an 'ultimate evil' person for the american people to sustain a will to war. so i don't think it was american ego at all. i think it was bush wanting to continue the war.
  • stopmediabias said on May 17, 2009....

    Trav-"but bush pulled the troops out of afghanistan in 04 and sent them to iraq, allowing the taliban to regroup and grow, spread across afghanistan, and now they're across the border of pakistan where they weren't before."

    Our goal was to remove the Taliban from power and that is what we did.  The last remnants of them scurried in those inhabitable areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Back then we had to gauge every threat and Iraq was next and line and central to the front.  It is dubious to make the above statement because NATO was suppose to take over where we left off.

    "iraq could have been dealt with in a way that wouldn't have killed hundreds of thousands of their citizens, and terrorism wouldn't be anywhere near as big a problem in the world as it is now."

    Saddam was all ready responsible for the deaths of millions, it is naive and stupid to think he wouldn't carry on the same lunacy and then his son's would carry it on further.  We had terrorism in a pre-Bush world and incidents of terrorism dropped during Bush's time so your latter statement is wrong.

    When you say Iraq could have been dealt with in a way that wouldn't have killed so many people, how so?  No wars are perfect and we can certainly learn from the mistakes we made but what other options were there in dealing with Saddam?

    In what you are saying in regards to this Halliburton bullshit is Cheney and Bush went into Iraq, not to liberate millions or take down a brutal regime, or stop future acts of terrorism, but to make people who are all ready millionares several times over richer?  This puts you on same level as 9/11 conspirators. 

     

  • travelr712 said on May 17, 2009....
    In what you are saying in regards to this Halliburton bullshit is Cheney and Bush went into Iraq, not to liberate millions or take down a brutal regime, or stop future acts of terrorism, but to make people who are all ready millionares several times over richer?
     
    yep, that's my view, and i'm stickin to it. doesn't make me a conspiracy theorist any more than it makes me a liberal. it's just how i see it. and since those people who were millionairs are now several times over richer, that's pretty good evidence to me.
  • speaking_up said on May 17, 2009....
    @kevin "Also it is worth pointing out that the Taliban have always been in Pakistan so you are also wrong to say that they are where they never used to be."
     
    the taliban had no power in pakistan...I appreciate your knowledge, kevin, but the taliban did not rule the female gender practises in pakistan - that is only becoming a problem NOW.  If I am wrong, and I am too sick to go reading for my data at this moment, then wtf was bush administration all friendly with the pakistan government for until recently?  If the taliban had any power in paki land, then I am angrier at america even more than before I read your comment.
     
    I don't read historical or political science books anymore, they bore me to tears.  I read about real life issues by men and women living within the hell as we speak.  These women had normal lives before the taliban took over.  They were doctors, they were teachers, they were healthy.  Now they are not.
     
    @stop "Our goal was to remove the Taliban from power and that is what we did.  The last remnants of them scurried in those inhabitable areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan."  
     
    You better check your sources, stop...even the major cities continue to practise taliban law.  In the city parks!  I've seen the executions, and I still rarely see women walking about (about 4 months ago 3 men and a women all of the same family were executed in a famous park (pardon my not having the name handy) because they were allowing their children to read! 
     
    Please, it is as simple as checking out the internet for daily updates...you may learn something real!
     
    Granted, there are many protected areas now...but it is not enough.  Not nearly enough.  And what is being bred are more of these taliban babies who, like you, will not change their fundementalist attitudes at all. 
     
    @trav..."so i don't think it was american ego at all. i think it was bush wanting to continue the war."
     
    Yes, I think I made another post where I was blaming american ego for many of our problems, but in this case, the war was personal.
     
    Must apologise for my weak arguments as I sit here with a fever (now down to 103)...I had to come in because ya all got me riled up again!
     
  • travelr712 said on May 17, 2009....
    don't get riled speaking, you just have to get used to the fact that smb likes to state his personal conclusions as verified facts and move on with the discussion. certainly american ego and greed have had much to do with the poor conditions of the world today. but i noticed something a year ago that is pure speculation with absolutely no way for anyone to prove or disprove, i have just noticed it happen repeatedly. during the campeign of last year, when it was getting to the time for bush to leave, and it was becoming obvious that the republicans were not going to stay in power, a trickle effect in the market happened that turned into a firehose. much the same thing happened in 2000 when the dems lost and clinton won. all those who had been favored financially by the administration and the party they were a part of, lobying for, had contacts with and thru, et. al. found themselves in the position that those contacts were no longer of value, so they began to pull their money out of whatever enterprise it was that the admininstration and party gave them access to. as the 'top dogs' began to pull out, others noticed this and panicked. MELTDOWN! again, there is no way to prove or disprove this theory, it is simply a pattern i've noticed in the economy over the past several decades, and a reasonable conclusion as to the cause.
  • stopmediabias said on May 18, 2009....
    Travel-Ouuch!  I am officially finished with you.  You right along with the other "non-liberals" like Kelly and Bloc are the biggest frauds on Soulcast.
     
     
  • speaking_up said on May 18, 2009....
    @trav...yes, we did vote bush in again, didn't we?  That does make US responsible.  And your theory is very interesting.  I'm going to think about it some more. 
     
    @stop...what caused your reaction like this?  Wow.  One of my favorite quotes is "methink tho doith protest to much" - which sort of goes together with what I just saw here:  when I see knee jerk reactions such as yours, I know there must be some element of truth in what you are so pissed about.
     
     

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Please support families of 9/11 victims

Twylarants posted 8 days ago | views: 691 | Tags: terrorists
As long as terrorists have legal rights afforded by the American Constitution, 9/11 could happen again....anytime, anywhere. Think about it.... read entire post 0 comments