Of course it works, if it didn't, they wouldn't use it. That doesn't make it acceptable though.
Of course it works, if it didn't, they wouldn't use it. That doesn't make it acceptable though.
There is nothing demonstrably true that religion can provide the world that cannot be achieved more rationally through entirely secular means.
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Where there's any doubt as to its success, you're not looking beyond the victims. If you question the morality, you're probably not one of the perpetrators. It may be that, for some, there's all the leeway in the world where terrorism is state-sanctioned. Of course, in the latter case these aren't non-state actors and we call it policy.
Yes terrorism works but as it gets wider and larger, it suffers diminishing returns.
Is it ever acceptable? One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. Partisans fighting German occupation in France and Poland would, in Germany's view at the time and using today's terminology, been characterized as terrorists. Probably an unfair way to frame that comparison using past and present... but also probably true. To answer the question I'd have to be wishy-washy and say: Possibly.
“I think if Thomas Jefferson were looking down, the author of the Bill of Rights, on what’s being proposed here, he’d agree with it. He would agree that the First Amendment cannot be absolute.” - Chuck Schumer (D). Yet, Madison and Mason wrote the Bill of Rights, according to Sheila Jackson Lee, 400 years ago. Yup, it's a fact.
The obvious answer to this is: sometimes. On the whole relatively few terrorist campaigns have actually effected their objectives in any meaningful way but some certainly have. As a mechanism for raising attention for a cause or issue it is clearly effective. As a tactic utilized by belligerents to further their goals (the Islamic State, North Vietnam, Iraq's sponsorship of terrorists in Iran during the war and vice versa, etc) it's certainly been effective at times.
It only works if the target capitulates, which I always thought was very rare. They use it because they have no alternative, it's an act of desperation when you can't hope to achieve your goal directly. But lately I've come to realize that some of these countries are actually paying kidnappers, and people here actually let 9/11 change their behavior and world view. So my answer now is that it doesn't work on smart people, but it seems to work on some of you.
Schadenfreude ist die schönste Freude.
There is a smarter way than terrorism and it's happening right now and has been for some time and the reason it is smarter than terrorism, is because so many people don't recognise it. What is smarter than terrorism?......migration, illegal or otherwise. Migrate, bide your time, then demand cultural and religious rights, breed, appear to have assimilated and bingo. No one needs to blow things up, that is just counterproductive. Invasion through Immigration is working in Europe, Britain, Australia, and, I imagine, the United States. When one doesn't migrate but remains in their own country, terrorism is also counterproductive...be smart, learn how to play the population, get the right people where you want them, appear to be all sweetness and light and cooperative, working together to have peace and harmony and then, pounce. Then wait for it to begin all over again.
Yeah, I already know what the majority of responses will be, and that folks is why it works!
Muslims are not radicalized by poverty, racism or lack of integration. Muslims are radicalised by Islam. The fact is that Islam is the only religion where its followers become more violent, the more they follow their religion. Author not known to me
“I have been made victorious with terror...” Mohammad, The Hadith, Bukhari (4.52.220)
Terrorism 'works' because people respond to the terror acts and not the terrorists. Terrorist groups tend to play on the the nature of their victims. The most effective response for their purpose is to get their victims to fight against each other and blame each other for their actions.
Does it work? Hell yes.
The director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan – Lt. General William Odom said:
By any measure the US has long used terrorism. In ‘78-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism – in every version they produced, the lawyers said the US would be in violation.
Yeah, it works.
Killing one person is murder, killing 100,000 is foreign policy