Without Reason

The world today is a tempest brought on by the decisions and actions of nations that have unleashed so much terror unto the world.

In the days of my somewhat innocent youth the burdens of my parents though small by comparison to today never affected my sister of myself. We were fortunate indeed by today's standards. The economic and financial stability of many of my generation sheltered the experiences of our youth. We were free to enjoy the passage from childhood all the way through our high school years. We were the epitome of life imitating art by all those old black and white TV shows of Leave It To Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, or Father Knows Best. Our lives were blessed.

During the ensuing years following my collegiate days I began to see a transformation taking hold of our society. From the onset of the early 1970's you could see a sociological shift sweeping over the whole country.  One of the most significant factors that helped invoke change was the Vietnam War. Our continued involvement tore this nation apart. The effects forever changed the way many Americans felt about our government and our country. No longer were we the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way. We became a nation more suspicious of our government. Suspicious, because of the sinister, dubious and deceitful way too many of our elected officials have acted. This also was the period where our public educational systems became more liberal. No longer were the codes of etiquette that was the norm for decades required. As a consequence to many of our schools became incubators of a new normalcy that was far inferior to the educational standards of the generations of our fathers, grandfathers, or even my generation.

It was during the decade of 1970's that there was a continual economic shift in the demographics of our society. The strong middle class which after all was the backbone of the United States for two and a half decades following World War II started to evaporate. Much of what occurred in the 1970's was attributed to the United Auto Workers Union. The union got too greedy which set off a chain reaction that was felt from Detroit all the way to Washington. This marked a turning point for American manufacturing and opened up a Pandora's box of subsequent trade agreements and policy decisions that to this day have been the killing fields of the American middle class wage jobs.

By then the political process was becoming totally corrupt. No longer were the needs of the majority being met let alone even addressed. It was as though millions of Americans didn't stand a chance to be able to climb the upward mobility ladder that was available back when I was young. Too often policies were and still are now only being implemented to augment the benefits of our self serving bureaucrats. Bureaucrats that have been for over 40 years been bought and paid for by again self serving corporate CEO's. 

As we have embarked on the journey into the 21st century the sociological change that began in the 1970's has now manifested into major economic changes that has had far reaching consequences. When we add all the governmental policies either foreign or domestic, to many have caused irreparable damage to our economy. They also have created the tempest of violent reprisals that have spread mayhem, death, and destruction to every corner of the world. The latest attack in Brussels is a continuation of such violent reprisals. It can be arguably said that the United States has been an unwitting accomplice by virtue of foreign policy decisions and military actions of the past 40 years for almost every terrorist group around the world.

It can be said that when people especially our own governmental officials are provided with continuous nourishment aka, corporate campaign contributions, they grow complacent to the real concerns of the majority of the American public. It is this complacency of our elected officials that for years now  has triggered the sociological and economic ills that are plaguing the United States. What we are seeing today are the effects brought on by the nonchalant attitudes or over zealous policy decisions that continue to undermine the unity of a nation. And, with this current Presidential Primary season too many times there have been over zealous proposals in an attempt to bring reason into light of what is happening not only here in the US but, through-out the world. Again, the attack in Brussels has brought Republican contenders to suggest implementing drastic measures that would only exasperate the mounting tensions that are already being felt.  Without reason they are reacting to crisis that would further undermine the stability and security of the United States.

Without reason is the political climate today. It is not any wonder then too many attribute terrorist activity as without reason. Terrorist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda even though are widely seen as being motivated by their radical theology is not the motive unto itself but, rather a tool for recruitment and a potent means of getting those people to overcome their fear of death. With this latest suicide terrorist attack it is perceived that the motive is religious but over 95% of all suicide terrorist attacks since 1980 is a specific strategic motivation in response to military intervention. So in a way what the United States has inadvertently done with all our foreign military operations has only further instigated more terrorist attacks. ISIS and other terrorist groups are also responding to those military interventions specifically military occupation of territory that they view as their homeland or a prize territory.  From Lebanon and the West Bank in the 80s and 90s, to Iraq and Afghanistan and up through the attack in Brussels suicide attacks result from military intervention and more specifically when military intervention is occupying territory. That’s what prompts suicide terrorist attacks.

We must remember there have been hundreds of secular suicide attackers,” which suggests that radical theology alone doesn’t explain terrorist attacks. From 1980 until about 2003, the world leader in suicide attacks was the Tamil Tigers, a secular Marxist group of Hindu nationalists in Sri Lanka. The instigators of terror as we are seeing today act with self serving agendas. Too many especially in the Republican party are acting without reason in their assumption that radical religious doctrine motivates such violent terrorist activity. When in actuality they are responding to the ever encroaching military interventions promoted by foreign policy decisions. It has been all along that foreign policy decisions by the West have had a universal effect on the rise of insurgent terrorist activity ever since the late 1970's.  

Questions need to be asked and yet many in the Republican party think they have the answers. But, it has been without reason their answers are always for the wrong questions. We have always forgotten that the profitability of death through war and even terror has dominated mans actions and reactions through-out history. And until mankind realizes that war and terror are without reason humanity will always suffer through the repeating of history.