I'm not saying terrorists don't exist, and that there aren't Islamic extremists, but do you think the whole Al-Qaeda/Islamists vs. the West thing is all made up propaganda?

Remember, Osama Bin Laden denied involvement in 9/11 at first. It wasn't until later that tapes came out with "him" claiming to be behind it.

The Taliban just issued a statement saying they're not interested in attacking America, but they will fight us if we're over there. The US government then said they were fighting Al-Qaeda, not the Taliban. WTF?

I question not only the motive, but the existence of the threat of Muslim extremists. Why doesn't the government declare war on cars, they kill a lot more people than terrorists!

It's about something else.

Terrorist is the 21st century term for Freedom Fighters many times. The media and the government is used to blur the two to pinpoint who is the enemy from THEIR point of view. But that doesn't mean every terrorist is really a terrorist. Yes, there are terrorists, but many are also freedom fighters, whose have the right to defend their own country from the invaders.

By my opinion the Al-Qaeda is a fictive organization, which is existed somewhere in the past. But now, it's mostly controlled by the government to create fear. The Taliban is existing, but from their point of view, they're freedom fighters. Of course those ones, whose are blowing up themselves and killing innocent civilians, regardless where they're from, they're real terrorists, whose are killing innocent for their own ideals.

A terrorist is fighting for a higher ideal, usually blindly.
A freedom fighter is fighting for his / her own country, because of love; love for their own people and land.

The media is merging the two and using the word terrorist, while in many cases, those people are just fighting for their home. But as I said above, there are also terrorists.

[edit on 8-10-2009 by Sharrow]

Long story short, yes.

Look bro,

It doesn't matter what the crisis is, as long as there is a crisis.
Currently, that crisis in America is "Terrorism". It has taken other forms as well such as Communism etc. In order to keep the majority of Americans in-line, there must be an external threat that will unite most of the country. This has been the way things have worked for thousands of years. If your interested, Read Plato's "The Republic".

Keep in mind, ITS ALL PROPAGANDA.

Osama Bin Laden used to work for the CIA and America used to be BFFs with Saddam Hussein.

In short, yes, terrorism does exist. However, it is exacerbated and propagated to the layman of America to further the cause of uniting us against a common foe.

Believe a small percentage of what you read and nothing of what you watch on the news. And always, ALWAYS have your BS detector 100% operational.

I don't know if terrorism is a complete hoax, however, every decade there is something else for us freedom loving, first world dwelling citizens to fear.

Communism, terrorism, the cold war, viruses, natural disasters. There is always something that our governments claim we must live in fear of. In my opinion, it is fear that these same people use to justify their existence. It is fear that they use to gradually strip us of our freedoms under the guise of protection.

If we were to ignore their fear mongering, we could inch that much closer towards true freedom.

Have your nation stand against a common enemy, and they will unite, but more importantly, seek their leaders out for comfort. And when they do that, they start making compromises. The political elite gains power.
It has been done countless time. When the Argentinian dictator Galtieri was trying to hush up the mass abductions of thousands of intellectuals/innocents/political acitve people he tried to use our patriotism as an excuse to begin a war against England when we didn't have neither the resources nor the man power to handle it; people were so caught up in that bs excuse of 'having the Malvinas back' that they sent their kids to war. They ate line, hook and sinker.
It works, time and time again, because they take advantage of the human's social nature; we identify with a group and we tend to defend it to death, because that means that we're defending our own identity.

If terrorism is a hoax used to unite Americans, why is America more divided than ever? Half want more troops in Afghanistan, half want them to come home. How is the threat of terrorism uniting America?

terrorism was created by america ... they created the terms, they invented the enemies, and now, really, terrorism exists ...

so, america, congrats, you guys live in a hollywood movie 11

Like I said their existence revolves around our fear.

If their is a threat that the governments can exploit, then they will do so in order to maintain their power structure throughout the world.

If we have nothing to fear, then these individuals have very little reason to exist. And without their existence, the bureaucratic nightmare ceases to exist, and our freedom is restored. That is why there has been a threat to our way of life for many decades now. Because without that threat, there is little reason to justify their existence and we all progress towards actual freedom.

Behind every great lie there's a bit of truth. Real terrorist attacks (Lockerbie, truck bomb on US marine barracks in Beirut, Japan subway, etc.) are the perfect cover for staged events (i.e. false flag) that had us begging TPTB to shred our constitution and give us the police state we now have.

Terrorism isn't a complete hoax, but then intelligence agencies that snoop on "terrorist networks" can just as easily plant "signs" that other agencies pick up and view as a real threat - allowing for a false flag operation to be carried out and full blame to be given to the "terrorists", and further exacerbating the need for a fully-encompassing police state to "protect" us.

In the past, false flag operations would be used to lead into a war that we (or the perpetrators of the op) would benefit from. The false flag op would make an enemy nation the scapegoat, such as the "Gulf of Tonkin" incident which goaded America into war in Vietnam, "which handed President Johnson the carte blanc charter he wanted for future intervention in Southeast Asia."

"Operation Northwoods" was another false flag event that would be blamed on Cuba, giving then Joint Chief of Staff Lemnitzer the excuse he needed to go rampaging through Cuba and even heavily Cuban populated areas of Florida (pro-Cubans were going to be framed for domestic acts of terrorism)

But planting seeds of war through false flag attacks works far better when it's not being used to frame countries, but rather secretive, evil terrorist organizations that could be anywhere, or at least in countries you'd like to invade. Operation Northwoods, with a little updating, became 911. The very "freedom fighter" we aided and supplied arms and intelligence to, Osama Bin Laden would be groomed into the very face of evil by his former benefactors.

The threat of terrorism is a boon to the Pentagon, it's military suppliers, and a segment of the federal government that want's total dominion over it's citizenry, no questions asked. It's a never ending war that can be morphed into any direction. This doesn't mean real terrorists don't exist, only that they are occasionally helped out by a far more sinister group planting false flags. Like I said, behind every great lie (terrorism false flags) is a bit of truth (real terrorists).

Originally posted by stevegmu
If terrorism is a hoax used to unite Americans, why is America more divided than ever? Half want more troops in Afghanistan, half want them to come home. How is the threat of terrorism uniting America?

Because they don't want it united for a really long period of time. Think. United we stand, divided we fall. They want your country (or the majority of it) united so war seems justified for your people. They want to have an excuse to go to war... and when they get it, you can't do anything to stop them. They get what they want, and after that they don't care if the country is divided again... after all, it's better if they bicker among themselves about something that was already succesful for those who started it, and the whole war starts to become a whole cover up for another thing. Your news show war images 24/7, everyone talks about the war, and other things are forgotten. They obtain what they want, and while the country goes on bickering about the war, they continue with their next plan.

What we call terrorism is simply how a much weaker group fights a stronger, more organized one. The Muslim world isn't altogether thrilled by the US presence in its countries, especially when we support brutal, corrupt regimes that cater to our demands. Lacking an army to fight us, they resort to "terrorism". It is terrorism, but it is the only way to fight.

We (the US) did something similar with England. We had no well-trained, organized army; the British did. So we resorted to unconventional warfare, attacking unpredictably, shooting from behind trees, ignoring all the rules of war. In the meantime the British remained in ranks, marched together (instead of breaking up), and adhered to conventional forms of fighting. That was one reason they lost. Another reason was that they were fighting the entire population, not just an army.

We're doing the same in Iraq and Afghanistan. We try to fight conventionally; they use IED's, car bombs, suicide bombs, all sorts of unconventional and often unpredictable tactics. Since it is the population fighting us, not armies, we stand to lose in both wars. How can we win, when the entire country wants us out of there? And who's going to surrender? Who's even got the authority to surrender?

Even if we wind up killing bin Laden, that won't stop the war. It could give us an excuse to stop fighting, which would probably be a good thing. But Al Quaeda will continue on without him. It's a loosely-knit grouping of fighters, motivated primarily by hatred of the US. That hatred is fueled by our continually killing civilians in a country where we don't belong. It won't end until we leave the countries.

Terrorism is certainly not a hoax (as I suspect our friends across the ocean will attest to, quite readily). However, "Terrorism" in America is a lot like "Communism" was during the whole McCarthyism trap.

Most likely, this isn't a conspiracy, it's just a sign that American culture dictates that we should overreact to the fear-mongering of politicians. [sarcasm]Because, you know, their opinions matter a whole lot. And if they say that it's a bad thing, then it must be worse than bad.[/sarcasm]