I (Briefly) Try a Mac

He may be a bit biased, but that doesn't mean he's not right:



The Root Cause of Terrorism

Do not be fooled by the apologists of terror.



These apologists tell us that the root cause of terrorism is the deprivation of national and civic rights, and that the way to stop terror is to redress the supposed grievances that arise from this deprivation.

But the root cause of terrorism, the deliberate targeting of civilians, is not the deprivation of rights. If it were, then in the thousands of conflicts and struggles for national and civil rights in modern times we would see countless instances of terrorism. But we do not.



Mahatma Gandhi fought for the independence of India without resorting to terrorism. So too did the peoples of Eastern Europe in their struggle to bring down the Berlin Wall. And Martin Luther King's campaign for equal rights for all Americans eschewed all violence, much less terrorism.



If the deprivation of rights is indeed the root cause of terrorism, why did all these people pursue their cause without resorting to terror? Put simply, because they were democrats, not terrorists. They believed in the sanctity of each human life, were committed to the ideals of liberty, and championed the values of democracy.



But those who practice terrorism do not believe in these things. In fact, they believe in the very opposite. For them, the cause they espouse is so all-encompassing, so total, that it justifies anything. It allows them to break any law, discard any moral code and trample all human rights in the dust. In their eyes, it permits them to indiscriminately murder and maim innocent men and women, and lets them blow up a bus full of children.



There is a name for the doctrine that produces this evil. It is called totalitarianism.

Excellent and well-written, with an underlying passion that can't be denied. Even in the US, at the height of civil unrest, terrorism was a tactic eschewed by the far-lefties. They might bomb police cars and police stations, seeing them as legit "military" targets, but you never saw them blowing up Macy's.