"Terrorist Beliefs and Terrorist Lives" Reflection
...sts, militant activists, engage in terrorism for the sake of violence in itself. Some militant activists are drawn to violence as a way to vent anger or frustration, or as a source of excitement. Joseph Stalin, Timothy McVeigh, Velupillai Prabhakaran and Bommi Baumann are just a few militant activists. I learned a lot through reading the short biographies of some of the aforementioned men. Timothy McVeigh, for example, resorted to terrorism as a means of getting rid of his anger toward his mother his high school bullies. Theodore Kaczynski killed because of his hatred for the American government. Michael “Bommi” Baumer took a stand against the Vietnam War by resorting to violence. Osama bin Laden’s opposition to the Saudi’s relationship with the United States led to him to his attacks. Some of these reasons for terrorism seem, to me, like truly passionate ideas. The actions took in order to show opposition, however, were completely irrational. I have never believed that violence is an adequate means to any end. I am not too familiar with politics or international affairs, but I strongly believe that war and terrorism are uncalled for in any situation. This could be because of my ignorance about such matters. I don’t know what I would do, personally, if I was in the same position that many government officials have been put in. I can say that I am opposed to violence because I am an ordinary citizen, but that belief could change in the blink of an eye if I knew that the wellbeing of my country was at stake. This article has enlightened me in many ways. This is one an article that I truly enjoyed reading. I may do some individual research on my own on some of the men Goertzel discussed. Until I read this article I regarded violence of any kind, be it declared war, murder, or terrorism, as wrong and unnecessary. But after ...