Terrorism

I was eleven years old when the attacks on the World Trace Centers happened occurred. At the time it didn't affect me and I really had no idea what was going on, all that I remember was that my sister who was in college at the time was very emotional about it. At that time I had understood terrorism to mean something along the lines of people attacking the USA unexpectedly and for no reason. I hadn't really thought about this until I took an American Studies Course, History of September 11th, when we talked how not just one thing led to this attack, but there was a tangled web that became 9/11. Ever since that class I have not viewed the US political system in the same way.

I hadn't given much thought to this topic until we watched Slingshot Hip Hop in class and then it brought back how I had once felt about this topic. I feel as though the US is full of contradictions, for example, The War on Terror was given that name by the media although it was not declared a war by the President of the US. Although the US wants to help other countries gain a political system such as ours, who are we to say that our way is better than others?

I understand the need to stick up for one's self and to not be bullied around, but there is a very fine line between standing up for yourself and bullying others. There is a quote that is along the lines of "A person's rights stop when they start impeding on someone else's." Where does the right of the US stop and where does the right of other countries begin?

Searching the internet for articles that are anti-USA aren't that difficult. The article I have posted below describes the War Against Terrorism and what people did or didn't do during it. I have to stop and ask myself, if the USA doesn't approve of terrorism, why is it that the death tolls from 9/11 are nowhere near the death tolls that the US has racked up in the middle east? Is justice being done?

http://arabnews.com/opinion/columns/article170054.ece

A couple statistics from the article:
-Jan. 1, 2004 to Dec. 31, 2009 there were 109,032 conflict fatalities
-60 percent of those fatalities were civilians.
-700 civilians included pregnant women being transported to hospital to give birth, children and a number of mentally ill individuals

Watching the video in class we could see the suffering of the Palestinian Arabs. Listening to their raps I could tell how much passion they felt about the words they were saying, it was very different from American rap. Anybody can listen to Eminem or Snoop Dogg and not really feel like they are sincere about the issues they are talking about, but watching this documentary about these peoples lives and reading the translated words wowed me. These people aren't just rapping because they are good at it, they are rapping to try and save their people and spread the word about the injustice being done to them.