I've recently had a revelation: Terrorists are revolutionaries and revolutionaries are terrorists. And since this is my blog, I'm going to write about what ever I want, even if it makes me look like a fool.
I love the movie "V for Vendetta." I think it's a great film. But let's face it; it's about a terrorist terrorizing. But, we side with him. We feel for the terrorist. We want him to succeed. Even we Americans, who saw one of the worst terrorist bombings ever occur on our soil, feel for him.
How can this be?
You could argue that we side with 'V' because his government really is corrupt and fascist. The people really are living in fear. The majority of the citizens of that country do, in the end, agree with him about the need for regime change. But can that rationalization really work if we face the fact that all terrorists think they have the truth on their side? Where does 'revolution' end and 'terrorism' begin?
I don't think there's a difference. Right now there are a whole lot of people living in the Middle East who think that our government and way of life is flawed and they're willing to do anything to bring about a revolution in this country. Part of me is flattered they care so much. Part of me can't help but see the irony in the fact that as a result of Middle Eastern revolutionary attacks on September 11th, our government went over to the Middle East and forced, even more, our way of life upon them. The exact thing they're trying to do to us. Who is the terrorist? Who is the revolutionary? Who is right and who is wrong? Can right and wrong even be determined?
This revelation of mine has convinced me we are fighting the "War on Terror" completely the wrong way. Revolutionaries don't stop fighting when the government cracks down on them. If anything, it only fuels their cause. The only way that a government can win against revolutionaries is to either go the Stalin route and eliminate anybody who dares voice a protest, the exact direction our current administration is turning, or it could do the unthinkable and work with the revolutionaries in an attempt to satisfy everybody. Is that possible in the case of the Middle East and what Osama would like our nation to become? No, probably not. Is our current strategy working? No, most definitely not.
Certainly some would argue that since the terrorists in question don't live in the U.S., they don't have the right to fight for regime change within our borders. I think you'd have to be pretty ignorant to believe that. First of all, the terrorists aren't fighting the U.S. itself. They are fighting the entire Western ideology. They are fighting our way of life because they see it spreading like an unstoppable disease. Secondly, in this kind of global market and global Western lifestyle that we so advocate, we have to learn to think more globally. Our government and lifestyle is affecting the lives of those in the Middle East in a way never before possible. Surely, they have a right to do what they can to limit our impositions.
But maybe the most terrifying thing about the government's grand distinction between terrorists and revolutionaries is the effect we're seeing in our own country. Throughout the hunt for terrorists we have given the government the go-ahead to take away many of our freedoms. The government has increased security all over the nation. It has increased powers to ignore entire articles the Geneva Convention. It has fostered spying on American citizens. Aren't these the kinds of actions that V's government was guilty of? Weren't these the precise things that he was fighting against? And we sided with him then, because it wasn't our government. They weren't our lives. Truth be told, many Americans would be willing to give up even more freedoms to fight the evil 'terrorists.'
But what if Osama bin Laden were a U.S. citizen? What if all of the terrorists were Americans? What would we think then? Wouldn't we be upset with our government for turning to tried-and-true fascist tactics to root out those that oppose it? Wouldn't we join the ranks of the revolutionaries ourselves in an attempt to retrieve those freedoms we'd lost and set our government on a straighter course?
So I have to admit that, while I'm certainly not going to rush over to Afghanistan, track down Al-Qaeda and join their ranks, I'm finding it easier and easier to see things from their point of view. I don't think they're right. But we Americans are so very proud of our revolution and our fight against the injustices of the British crown. How can we really be upset with those following our forefathers' footsteps?
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