It's really, really hard to talk about radical Islamic terrorism

[drmeow]

66. As a child (a white, native born American), I lived in Beirut, Lebanon

One of the most terrifying experiences I remember from my childhood (more terrifying than the bomb going off across the street from my apartment building at the start of the civil war and more terrifying than hearing the gun and mortar fire during the civil war) occurred when I was on a picnic with my family. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, two fighter jets screamed overhead, dropped some bombs on the hillside in the distance, and screamed back the way they came. It scared the f**king shit out of me. Who it was, where they came from, and what they bombed is irrelevant to the story. What is relevant is that it terrorized me.

The level of terror inflicted by ISIS and the level of threat represented by ISIS is MINUSCULE compared to the level of terror we have inflicted for decades in the Muslim world. From the perspective of Pakistani's, Afghani's, and Iraqi's in particular, radical western capitalism is well established and protected by powerful leaders in several countries who have fighter jets and nuclear weapons and who have been committing terrorist attacks on them for decades. The actions of our military are terrifying to the innocent people who witness them and devastating to the civilians whose families are killed and whose homes are destroyed.

Admittedly, it is a tiny minority of Americans who are actually members of the armed forces and the CIA and are actually directly associated with various acts of violence against the Muslim world starting with (just to pick a moment in time) the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran orchestrated by the UK and US in 1953 and continuing through multiple wars of aggression and random drone strikes. As an American, I feel defensive as hell.

Something needs to be done about the twisted imperialistic philosophy of the American government and corporate power structure combined with the rabid anti-socialist agenda that leads them to wage wars, depose leaders, prop up dictators, violate non-Western country's sovereignty, and generally act like terrorist bullies. But, when those acts of terror are perpetrated by a powerful country's military - no one wants to call it terrorism.

No, we don't have to and should not talk about radical Islamic terrorism - we have to talk about general incitement to violence in any sector and easy access to guns.