Trends in Terrorist Attacks- Global Public Enemies

The trend over the last couple decades in warfare is focused on guerilla warfare. Here are some quick observations we know from September 11th 2001 and 2012 (The attack on US Embassy's in Northern Africa):

• Terrorists use religious language and rhetoric to incite the lower classes of people who are economically and educationally deprived 
• They target nations, groups, and organizations that have economic wealth and freedom
• Their attacks are focused to maximize the terror factor and reduce costs
• As such they are very well organized grass-roots organizations
• Their overarching vision and mission is often vague (such as Jihad in the holy lands) and are designed to last forever (there is no way to measure overall progress)
• Even still, their vision is global not local
• Essentially, Terrorists can only win battles and not wars
• They are only permitted to thrive in locations of the world where individuals do not have sufficient freedom (either they are economically constrained or they are oppressed by their government) 

To me it seems as though "Terrorists" (if that's the correct term) are just bullies...they don't have the things they want and their life circumstances are so poor that they take their economic or govermental oppression out on targets that are not directly involved in their oppression. 

This is precisely what Hitler did to gain power over the Germans

What the Bolsheviks did to control the Russians

What Geronimo did to the Native Americans/Mexicans

What we are facing isn't new, and is likely the byproduct of a shrinking world. Although America may play a strong part in our shrinking world, Americans and American Ideology and Organizations are merely players in a constantly changing environment. The changing dynamics affect everyone and these "terrorists" are global citizens who are causing problems to our global society. They are no different than the village trouble maker in primitive societies or the town drunk. 

It is an unfortunate thing that our nations by themselves are unable to handle all of these problems on their own. This situation is comparable to the individual states in the U.S. being unable to contain Jesse James the train robber or Johnny Dillinger the bank robber. 

The solution, for the U.S., was to create a national criminal justice force out of the executive department of the government. This was known as the FBI.

But as the world expands, there becomes a need for an International Task force charged with criminal justice  . We need to recognize that Terrorist acts, Rebellion, Sedition, and otherwise are criminal acts. Such actors become public enemies to the global public. Unrest in one remote part of the world affects the rest of the world--this is 2012. 

In the past we have seen a village pride, town pride, county pride, state pride, national pride, and now it is imperative that we develop a global pride. We need to be proud to be citizens of the Earth and we need to be as involved in global affairs as we are in our local and national affairs. Without such pride we are doomed to repeat history over and over again. Public enemies will surface over and over again and we will be unable to prevent them, unable to stop them until it is too late. 

No man is an island and although modern terrorists tend to focus their efforts on America and its direct allies, all nations of the earth will be affected by these global public enemies. 

Mankind's Greatest Problem

A fellow traveler throughout life once asked me what I thought "the biggest problem was with people." I sat for a moment and then said that the biggest problem with people (individuals and society) is that they don't forgive often enough. Everybody wants Justice. They want what's fair and they want at least an equal share of it. If someone does something to offend them, they want that person to suffer and they themselves to be blessed.
Eventually, the universe will balance itself out. Karma will turn right around and bite everyone who takes more of their share and it might even give more than a fair share to those who are offended. Those who get the worst out of life initially get the best out of life later, and those who have life easy struggle when they are older. But none of that matters really when it comes to people...

People are the catalyst of life. How you treat people is what matters most--the relationships you have and maintain are what is important, not what is just and fair. In the real world, justice and equality don't exist in the same breath as friendship, love and happiness. With people, there is no right and wrong, everything is just different. Some people do things one way, others do things another way, yet both are still living, still surviving. If doing things their way helps them accomplish their goals and find purpose in life, then let them do it. So long as they aren't knocking you down, it's alright that they step on your toes. This world is too big to take offence whenever someone rubs against you the wrong way.

There is something beautiful about being able to withstand other people's negative energy and transforming it into something neutral--or even something positive!

Typically, people's problem (individual's and society's biggest problem of not forgiving) comes down to a common scenario: one friend gets into an argument with another friend or lover or other relation, and they vow not to forgive or forget. They build up a long list of grievances and don't ever let go of the situation and they distance themselves from their friend.
The trouble is that the times when you need friends the most is in that moment when your friend disappoints you, upsets you, turns on you, offends you, hurts you, or otherwise influences you negatively; and in that moment, you've distanced yourself from your friend. In the moment that you harbor animosity between you and your friend and you create that distance between them, you lose your friend and you no longer have your friend to be with you during that, the worst, time.

Forgive people, let the universe balance itself out, life is to precious to lose a good friend.