[UF_PikePC98]

Originally posted by KappaKittyCat
My opinion is a rather unpopular one, but I'm not shy.

To put it simply, the terrorists won.

Historically, left- and right-wing terror involve very different acts. Left-wing terror focuses on the elimination of key figures, with the goal of upsetting their opponant's base of power and control. The most famous example of this is the abduction and assassination of Italy's Christian Democratic Party leader Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades in the spring of 1978. (Don't be deceived by the name; the PDC is on the right side of the Italian political spectrum.) The PDC was crippled for quite a while by Moro's death.

Contrast this with the Terza Posizione's bombing of the Bologna rail station in August of 1980. The goal of right-wing terror is to disrupt people's faith in their government's abillity to protect them. The Terza Posizione figured that the Italians would look at the Bologna rail bombing and think, "We need to increase governmental control in order to stay safe." The central government becomes more powerful and regulations are put in place that enhance safety and reduce liberty.

The al Qaeda terrorists' actions have caused our government to implement limitations of our Constitutional liberties in the name of freedom. Think of the ads in Minority Report. "That which keeps us safe keeps us free." But PreCrime did nothing but eliminate freedoms in the name of public security. In the end it failed for that reason.

I think that if the United States government is going to go in and knock out totalitarian regimes, it needs to be prepared to engage in a fair amount of nation-building. You can't just eliminate one government and not leave anything in place. What happened when the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan and left nothing behind? The Taliban moved in. Nature abhors a vaccuum. If the U.S. government does not step up and take responsibility, something else will fill it, and then it will have no right to bitch about the ensuing consequences.

In other news, my personal theory is that the U.S. is allowing Usama bin Laden to escape. His flight into other countries can be used as an excuse to get in there and clean house. This is an unprecedented opportunity.

I came home from a semester in Italy to find a country plastered with red, white, and blue. All this shallow patriotism makes me ill. Americans can talk the talk just fine, but when it comes to walking the walk, most of us stumble.

You know, I'm normally right on just about everything......So I'm making yet another guess that seems accurate.....Are you a History Major?