Reading the Nelson Mandela thread, I can honestly see both sides of the argument. It doesn't change my deeply-held belief that Mandela later in life was a champion of reconciliation and democracy. Preparing a reply to that thread, I thought deeper as I tend to do. This is the result Our own nation was born out of a war not unlike what the ANC did. That likely struck a chord with the American people. We had an injustice that we sought to remedy. I think all too often the motivations of terrorists get lost in the mix no matter who the terrorists are or who their victims are. Many Americans look on the ANC, Afghan resistance during the Soviet war, even the PIRA in Ireland as just causes and then look upon the Black Panthers, Al Qaeda, and the Oklahoma City bombers and judge them terrorist acts. It is our perception that leads us to that conclusion. We perceive the loss of innocent life as abhorrent. Yet, we do not realize that, to the terrorist mind, their victims are either tacitly or overtly guilty. Timothy McVeigh attacked the Alfred P. Murrah Building because that was a symbol of the perceived oppressor of like-minded fellows of his at Ruby Ridge and Waco. Oppressed peoples often take up arms in an attempt to remedy a perceived injustice. Some, like the ANC are celebrated, while others, like the PKK and Al Qaeda are vilified by our society. We must take a look at ourselves and say "which perceived injustices are, when we look at them, apparent to an outside observer?" and then act accordingly. That action, however, should not be to first take up arms and move to attack unless we are provoked into said attack. I believe that we, as a species, need to move away from the call to arms and look instead for ways to negotiate. Even the bitterest rivals can often find a common ground or interest from which to build a rapport. We talk about how Reagan ended the Cold War. He didn't win it because he stared down Gorbachev with a gun pointed at his head, Dutch ended the conflict by trusting the other side. Trusting, but at the same time, verifying. Many summits led to Reagan and Gorbachev forming a bond that crossed ideological barriers. Communist and capitalist, authoritarian and libertarian. Undoubtedly, Gorbachev's realization that the Communist system had failed led somewhat to the fall of the Soviet Union, but I imagine that his friendship with Ronald Reagan helped him see that. I'm not naive, some terrorists cannot be reached. Osama bin Laden for example, was incensed by King Fahd not trusting bin Laden's ability to defend his kingdom from the threat of Saddam Hussein. That anger was only amplified when he watched news coverage of his religion's homeland being defiled in his eyes. Basically, Osama was a spoiled brat who used his religion as an excuse to strike back because he wasn't favored over the United States. For terrorists like that, swift and overwhelming force is the only communication they understand. However, as we learned from Nelson Mandela, not all terrorists are lost causes. Nelson Mandela, a reformed terrorist, laid his arms down and embraced his former oppressor, enemy, and jailor for the betterment of his nation.
