So I’m doing a project about terrorism and I got from the library a video about terror and terrorist groups. It was made back when we were fighting “terrorists” all over south America, like indigineous farmers and workers and the non-ruling classes. Back the first time that Rumsfeld and Cheney werre major players in a war on terror. I think we won that one, as the Mayans in Guatemala have not killed our children in the middle of the night. Nor did Nicuragua bomb us with jet planes, although given the level of violence we were unleashing upon them, it would have been morally justifiable as a “just war” on their part. Except for the end, where we would have nuked them.
Anyway, so back in the 80’s when this video was made, there were a bunch of very scary terror groups that struck out with violence in all directions killing innocent people. Including Armenians. There were Armenians in many many countries, lurking, waiting to bomb you. Why is that? Well, Turkey did a forced march wherein many of them expelled. More than a million Armenians were killed in this process in one of the unremebered genocides of the 20th century. And can you beleive it, some Armenians want to keep dwelling on the past! They raised money so that Armenians left in Turkey can try to fight the military state as it continues to crush them. These Armenians are engaging in murder, cold-blooded murder, against Turkish government officials. And Armenians all over the globe are participating! “where ever there are Armenians, there is terror.” (Fresno is given as an example of this phenomenon)
1.5 million dead Armenians = the state’s legitimate use of force and a thing of the past, so stop caring.
A few dozen (or heck, maybe a couple hundred) dead Turkish offcials = morally reprehensible, unjustifiable, criminal, evil murder
So, we had a bogey man, a war with evil, an unrepentant and inscrutable criminal element, bent on our distruction.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I would also like to note that Cobra, the bad guys in the GI Joe TV show were also terrorists intent on killing the entire western world for reasons that were completely unclear but had something to do with being evil. In 1985, this was a children’s cartoon. I guess that off and on for the last 20 or 30 years, it’s also been our political situation in Real Life. really.
