Terrorism (or, How to cheat at Word Games)

[pissmachine]

If someone could explain this phenomenon to me, I'd be eternally grateful. There seems to be some kind of grey area here; "they hate our way of life". That's a little too non-specific for my tastes. My money is on the idea that the whole specter of terror is a nicely crafted bit of rhetoric, given life by western corporate media.
The vagueness surrounding the whole idea of terrorism is what makes it 'terrifying'; you don't understand and therefore are afraid. No mention is made as to a possible reason behind suicide car bombing, flying planes into buildings and mass-transit-executions. And that's what makes the whole terrorism-as-fear-inducing-control-mechanism so effective.
The other bit... What exactly is Al-Quaeda? Can anyone fill me in? This seems to be synonymous with terrorism (an equally vague term) and hence, just as 'terrifying'. The difference is, use of the term Al-Quaeda suggests Muslim/Arab/BROWN-SKINNED involvement... So the question I pose is this; Could the linguistic establisment of Al-QUADA be a mechanism for the re-inforcement of fear and hate towards the OTHER?

[ChrisCaputo]

Alright, i know alot about politics so i'll try to help, i know that terrorists arent attacking because of our freedoms, its because were intereferring in their "holy land" how american troops are in saudi arabia. I really believe that the american government had a hand in 9/11 because there was no airplane at the pentagon, there was no wreckage found, there was only a exit whole the size of a missle at the back of the pentagon, and if a plane going 800 miles/hour was flying 100 feet over a highway (there is a major highway 500 feet from the pentagon) the cars would have been blown off the road.

I really believe Al-quada exists and i really think the terrorists have interpreted the koran literally and therefore have taken matters into their own hands, though like in iraq i think they are hurting themselves, because the more they attack the longer the americans will stay. Right now i pretty much think that its a religious war, Christianity vs Islam, thats my opinion though...

[pissmachine]

Agreed, on all fronts, agreed.
However, the point I was trying to make was that the whole situation (you know, homelandsecurity/patriotact/impossiblebordercrossings...) is produced through clever, consistent and loaded rhetoric, hence the title of this thread.
What it comes down to is not a conflict between Christianity and Islam, or between white folks and brown folks... The whole situation is-what-it-is because of the way it's been spun.
Example... Had america been understood from the get-go as invaders rather than liberators, we wouldn't be throwing around terms like "insurgents".
Example... By connecting "terrorism" and Al Quaeda, the media-puke-factory also managed to connect "terror" to the entire middle-east. Talk to someone of the lower-middle class from one of the southern states and I'm willing to wager that this point will prove itself.

[rapscallion]

how do you universalize something like 'terror' into the war on terror, it just seems ridiculous, if the administration was really interested in stopping 'terror' they start with something more tangible say the 'war on poverty', because afterall nothing is more terrifying than not having any food or clean water daily, consequently (and this is just a guess) nothin is better breeding ground for terrorists (forget the radical islamic thing, that's only part of the story in my opinion) than a bunch of desperate hungry people. terror is a frame of mind, it is a response to 'something', whether internally or externally generated, --i feel terror every time i go to the dentist, that doesn't make them a terrorist, --but i think this 'terrorism' as a rhetorical device is something quite new, because of course terrorists, or the 'uses of terror' are as old as the history of warfare at least, but the 'ism' i think is significant, it fits nicely into the 'facism' 'communism' dialectic, but unlike the those, which depended largely on somekind of sovereign nationality for its embodiement, we've got an 'ism' which is diffused, elusive, and relies on an obvious racial profiling which identifies 'terrorism' with 'terrorist' much in the same way that say hitler would be a referent for facism, stalin for communism, now we've got osama, the radical islamicist as the archetype, though he's much more of a figure head than any of those others. Terrorism them is both a rhetorical tool, but also a form of mass hysteria (think war of the worlds), its the uber-narrative for the new millenium, get used to it....

[MuslimsRepresent lol]

OK... I'm muslim and beleive me, Al-Quada arent doing what it says in Koran... Muslim is just another religion that has the same god as everything. And in our religion, those who kill get punished... So we muslims hate Al-Quada as much as every1 else does because they are giving us a bad name. We are supposed to be the purest religion out there. I'm starting to think that Al-Quada is doing all of this so they could make the whole world turn against us. And I wouldnt be surprised if US was behind this. Since the only reason they are still in Iraq is because of the petrol...

[raven]

the sad part of terrorism is the fact that it instills fear in people and the only thing worse than an idiot is a scared idiot! just look at the KKK! we should be far beyond religious wars considering we are in the information age. i am not a religious scholar but i do know that the majority of religions believe in a god/goddess and try to teach their followers respect for one self, respect for others and an overall respect for life. To blame a Muslim for terrorism is the same as blaming any other religion for terrorism. the sad part is it goes back to my first statement about scared idiots. These people don't have all the facts so are quick to judge and make accusations. People who would blame black people for stealing from them if they caught a guy, regardless of colour, stealing from them while wearing a basketball outfit. or Muslims for terrorism because a guy with a bomb strapped to him claimed to be Muslim.
now relating to the government and terrorism, the bad people are seen in a matter of perspective. do you think the people of Iraq see bush as an angel or saviour? his own people see him as piece of nuts so how could they have any love for him. the Americans look down on Canada for not joining the fight but bush created the fight so why should we back the bully. it's becoming a big game of retaliation and Innocent people are being pulled into the game. it must be pretty easy to send people to their deaths since so many leaders do it. f**k the government! f**k them in their stupid asses!