A look inside..to the ugly

This is hard to read...but it points to something worth seeing...

WASHINGTON (Oct. 27) - Two white supremacists allegedly plotted to go on a national killing spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, federal authorities said Monday.
"Both individuals stated they would dress in all-white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt," the court complaint states. "Both individuals further stated they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt."
The court documents say the two men met about a month ago on the Internet and found common ground in their shared "white power" and "skinhead" philosophy.
The numbers 14 and 88 are symbols in skinhead culture, referring to a 14-word phrase attributed to an imprisoned white supremacist: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children" and to the eighth letter of the alphabet, H. Two "8''s or "H''s stand for "Heil Hitler."
Sheriffs' deputies in Crockett County, Tenn., arrested the two suspects — Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of Helena-West Helena, Ark.

Are these two individuals any different from the terrorist organizations in other parts of the world with whom we are waging war? They are individuals acting out alone, but they harbor a terrorist state of mind. They cling to a false and diabolical sense of supremacy that insanely justifies their right to kill while preserving voluntary ignorance that drives a willingness to sacrifice their own life, to preserve an unworthy ideal. They know nothing more than to gravitate to brutal violence to feed their desperation and euphoric need for power and control. These two people want to be Hitler. They worship Hitler ! How, after 60 years have we not been able to eliminate this evil connection? What have we done as a nation to address or at least recognize the root cause of terrorism ? Has the bloodshed, death and destruction inflicted through war, eradicated the terrorist state of mind? Hardly.

These two men are crazy. They are undereducated, poor and suffering. Certainly no excuse for their madness, but useful to consider as a direct point of comparison to America's characterization of terrorists in other parts of the world with whom we are fighting and killing. Osama Bin Laden is rich, his collaborators are rich but his army is poor and suffering.

My point is this.

Through covert intelligence and law enforcement, we recognized a threat, found the source of violence, identified individuals orchestrating the attack, followed their actions, arrested them and thwarted their plan to violently destruct and brutally kill innocent people. We did not send troops to Tennessee and Arkansas, to set up military installations, occupy neighborhoods, and kill the "largely unidentifed" enemy to defend our country from dangerous ideals that are only manifested through violence and killing. We did not classify Tennessee and Arkansas as "terrorist regions" jeopardizing the safety of the innocent citizens of these two states for the sake of eradicating evil there. We found the source of evil within the community, sniffed it out and took it out.

Isn't that the way to fortify the safety of an individual or a country? Obviously Al Qaeda is a massive entity, but shouldn't we be surgically dissecting that organization, sniffing it out and taking it out. Person by person, leader by leader - instead of region by region. Like Tennessee and Arkansas, can't we assume that there are people in Afghanistan who are non-violent, who hope for peace and want desperately to live in an area that is not war torn or occupied by a foreign power. Are there not families in Afghanistan, like those in Tennessee and Arkansas that just want to survive, and give their children a safe environment in which to go to school, play and live out their life.

There are a lot of similarities to examine here, in terms of how we stop violence, protect our people and our country. We can be diligent and surgical in our approach. We can even be proactive. But we should not be broad in our assumptions on sources of evil. In this we need to pinpoint precisely, and eradicate carefully. You might say that this approach is too slow, and will never bring and end to the problem of terrorism.

I say, that terrorism is a desperate state of mind, with violent consequences. And if we can't end the desperation, we won't end the terrorism.