Essay - WHY Do People Commit Acts of Terrorism? on One Level...

Why do people commit acts of terrorism?

On one level, this question is unanswerable in the same way child abuse and rape are incomprehensible. For people who ***** not believe that violence is ever acceptable except to defend oneself or other innocent people, it is impossible to fathom what would motivate people to harm ***** bystanders, an element in so much of terr*****ism. But, clearly - given the number of terrorist acts that occur in ***** world ***** to other people terrorism is *****mething that simply makes good pol*****ical sense: Realpolitik carried to logical extremes.

***** great deal has been written about terrorism since 11 September 2001, but this should not blind us to the fact that terrorism is hardly a new phenomenon. Although it is hard to believe that there is anyone in the world who is not now more aware of the possible reach and effects of terror*****m than they were six months ago, if we are ***** come to a better understand*****g of the ********** in which terrorists operate and the basic human psychology ***** terrorism than we must take a longer view of the phenomenon (McDermott 2002). Only if we do so - if we look at terrorism over a period of centuries and include an analysis of both religiously motivated ***** other forms ***** terrorism - can we come to any clear understanding of what happened in the United States ***** ***** as well as what h***** happened since then (Miller 2002).

***** defining ***** and examining *****me other recent ***** of terrorists both in the ***** States and elsewhere throughout the *****, I will argue that the reason that Osama bin Laden has proven to be such a diabolical villain in terms of the way is that he represents America's own potential for evil ***** thus serves as a projection of Ameri*****s' own fears ***** themselves ***** well as a convenient sc*****pegoat for people and ways of l*****e that are "different." Terrorism springs from deep and tangled roots, but it is also true that in the end a nation's enemies are linked in intimate ways to its own values. The United States (like ***** groups of people, from extended families to clans to tri*****s to nation-states) defines itself in large measure by opposing itself to other groups ***** people ***** specifically to the leaders of enemy groups. In ***** words, Americans (like other people) define themselves as being not ***** the Taliban or ***** bin Laden - just as many fundamentalist Muslims define themselves as being not like Americans.

***** ***** perhaps be noted initially ***** there is nothing inherently wrong in such an oppositional def*****ition: It is ***** establ*****hed part of ***** cognition and history that we tend to think in opposites. How*****, such a tendency can quickly spiral out ***** control and be***** responsible for terrorism, genocide, war. It is indeed difficult to be passionate about such a subject bec*****use our pan-human tendency to define ourselves ***** our own group as *****