Why You Should Care: The Great Terrorist
|by Caleb Schrock-Hurst – Horizon Columnist
I often find myself wondering: What does the rest of the world think of the US? A little digging revealed some pretty interesting stuff, most notably that the US is perceived as the nation that poses the biggest threat to world peace.
For a nation that claims to be the global peacekeeper, this is a pretty damning statistic. Talk about a reputation. But how did we get it? What have we done to make the rest of the world afraid? Here are my thoughts on the subject.
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The US is far from hesitant to throw its military and political power around.
American history is soaked in the blood of innocents, and nearly every region of the world has seen the deployment of American troops. A few examples of countries that the US purposefully destabilized are Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Laos, the Philippines, Chile, and Colombia. There are many, many, more. Whether it be assasination, funding rebels or dictators, or outright invasion, we are not afraid to make sure that everyone across the world is ‘free.’ Free to buy and sell us cheap goods, that is. Our interventions have certainly not always worked out in the end (one quick example: we backed Saddam Hussein for a significant amount of time), but for some reason we continue to think that violence will solve all our problems and that the world is ours to dominate. And since the fall of the Soviet Union, we have dominated the world unopposed; however, this is changing and will continue to change as more and more countries see the US for what it is: and Empire seeking to expand its borders.

Many would say “Well, we need to stop the terrorists somewhere.” And I don’t disagree. But imagine this scenario with me for a second: You are from family similar to mine. You grew up in a medium sized town with religious parents and prize your family above everything else. Now, a few people from a different denomination than you from the country next door attack a far-off nation. You see no need to be worried, but, in the next few years, the nation that got attacked invades the country next door and then your homeland. They attack your religion and make blanket criticisms about your way of life, calling you backwards, racist, sexist, and less than human. Your father is forced to fight for the the invaders, and is then killed by his countrymen. Your brother speaks out against the unfairness of the situation and is killed for his opinions.
News flash: The US isn’t getting invaded here. It’s Iraq. The US is the one doing the invading.
My point in this story is this: War creates terrorists, it doesn’t get rid of them. Killing fathers and brothers (let alone the killings of sisters, mothers, sons, and daughters that are inevitable when you carpet bomb populated areas) does not make friends. It makes incredibly desperate enemies bent on your destruction.
2) Our retaliations are far from an eye for an eye.
For those of you who think our current involvement in the Middle East is justified, let’s take a look at some numbers. In the September 11, 2001 attacks, which over and over have been cited as the reason we invaded both Afghanistan and Iraq, a gut-wrenching 2,977 (2,996 if you include the hijackers) people died. I cried for those deaths and couldn’t sleep because I was so afraid. A large part of me wanted revenge. And Uncle Sam went out to get some.
We invaded Afghanistan less than a month after 9/11, and the ensuing war is still going on. That’s 13 years, 348 days and counting. We have recorded the deaths of more than 26,000 Afghan civilians, and an additional 360,000 have died due to food shortages and other problems caused by the war. So, we killed 130 Afghans civilians per American death in the 9/11 attacks.
On to the next country. We invaded Iraq in 2003, and officially left in 2011, though we are already sending troops back to fight ISIS. Unfortunately, the exact number of civilians killed in this war is not known because there are many different ways of counting and there are ulterior motives at work. If we use the numbers released by the Iraq Body Count Project, which have estimated 111,000 Iraqi civilians died directly from US attacks and an additional 540,000 or so died from war related causes, than 220 Iraqi civilians were killed per American death in the 9/11 attacks.
That means we have killed 314 civilian foreigners per American killed. This, of course, does not include all of the people displaced, injured, maimed and orphaned. It is impossible to count all the physical injuries, let alone the psychological ones. So, if you knew a country out there would attack with 300 times the amount of force used against them, would you be afraid? It would be illogical to not be.
3) We don’t hold ourselves to the standard we hold others.
It is basically universally recognized that landmines are a bad deal. Hardly ever do they all get set off in the conflict they are intended to be used for, and they end up killing and dismembering civilians long after war ends.
So, in 1997, the world leaders came together to ban these weapons that cause so much harm to civilians. The meeting was a wild success and over 160 countries quickly signed a treaty banning landmines.
Guess who wasn’t even in the talks? The good old USA.
True, China and Russia also didn’t sign, but what does it say about our nation that we applaud when other countries get rid of their weapons but we cringe at the thought of getting rid of them ourselves?
The same pattern is true for nukes. We freak out over the possibility of Iran getting a nuke (while they are still quite far away from production), yet we continue building our own with no regard for the danger these weapons pose to the rest of the world.
In addition, we are behind the world on other humanitarian issues as well. Only 20 countries still use the death penalty, and we are among them. In fact, some states still execute minors. This is a travesty that is often forgotten. When it comes to killing, we refuse to look at our own policies, and it is time to begin catching up to the rest of the world.
In conclusion, the US has done some pretty messed up things and it is incredibly easy to see why the rest of the world is cowering in terror. Yes, terror.
We are the world’s wealthiest and best funded terrorists.
It is time to change this. It is time to stand up for what we know is right, and we can. We are citizens of the world’s largest empire, like it or not. We can speak out for peace. We have the ability to protest, to make a difference, and to spread the word about the mistakes our government has made. We have the ability to vote for politicians that will bring real change and will downsize the military. We can and must speak out against needless violence, fear, and oppression. And above all, we must do so peacefully, lest we become what we are fighting.
In the meantime, we must all remember that to to the world, the American song is not one of freedom, but one of oppression.
Caleb Schrock-Hurst is a Sophomore at Hesston College where he works as a Writing Assistant, Ministry Assistant, and Horizon contributor. He would like to study everything, but when forced to choose selected English, History, and Music. Outside of academics his main interests are tennis, Bernie Sanders’ political campaign, the global church, and Arsenal Football Club. Feel free to contact him at caleb.schrock-hurst@hesston.edu or find him on campus if you wish to exchange verbal or physical blows. (Editor’s note: Caleb Schrock-Hurst’s opinions are not necessarily those of the Horizon staff or Hesston College.)
Caleb,
I do agree that America is spreading its military far too fast and wide. President Eisenhower warned us of a military industrial complex before leaving office. But he also knew how to us the military in a manner that was effective and without the intent of emperor building. War is terrible, but you cannot deny that peace talks will not always work. I have never heard of the European people of WWII saying they hated America for bombing their cities to drive the Nazis away. You call America a terrorist country, but we have done more to help other countries than most. This doesn’t negate the fact we have our issues. Instead of causing hate towards America, why don’t you come up with an actual plan to promote peace? This idea that war creates terrorist doesn’t always hold true, they already exist ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7TAAw3oQvg, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNseMjQkxvI ). You also said that America didn’t sign the ban to use landmines. My question is, since that ban, has America actually used mines and if so, have the cause serious civilian harm? You also said that “yet we continue building our own (nukes) with no regard for the danger these weapons pose to the rest of the world.”, but the evidence you show is from Wikipedia. Come on, your better than that, were is some strong sources. If Iran can produce nuclear weapons, there is a chance that they will destroy Israel. They are sworn enemies and Iran leaders have openly verbalized how much they hate Israel. That is why it is so important to keep nuclear capabilities from Iran. Let me remind you, the only reason you can speak your mind is because someone fought and dead for the idea of freedom of speech. If you did get your way and America withdrew all military forces, who would stop Isis from murdering and enslaving girl for sex (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbsesrAMjTw)? Who would you come crying to if we were ever under attack because no one kept the enemies at bay? War is ugly, but like a surgeon’s scalpel, it can create peace where simple words will not.
Andrew Brunner
Thanks for your comment. You make many valid points. I will do my best to address them one at a time.
Yes, the US has done a lot of good to help other countries and I do not deny that. The Nazis should have been stopped, but if we say the best way to stop them was through military fighting we are forgetting that there were millions of German citizens opposed to the Nazi regime who remained silent and helped the Jewish Holocaust occur. They could have stopped the war, or looking back even further, if the wester powers from WWI hadn’t demanded such high payments from the Germans (ie if we had left them their dignity) maybe they wouldn’t have started another war. WWII was clearly caused by WWI. In addition, a counter WWII example is that of Japan. How many Japanese people would say that nuking two of their cities was necessary? Why did we have to use our new godlike weapon twice when one clearly demonstrated our power? My argument is that despite good intentions, war always comes down to killing innocents. You cannot kill terrorists without killing thousands of innocents and in the process you will create more terrorists. I, as a pacifist, believe that all violence is a cycle ending in destruction of all, and I think that this is certainly true even with terrorists.
Continuing on to land mines, the US produces them and still uses them, though in a new (and less destructive to civilians) way. However, from an economic perspective, if they aren’t using them, then they are selling them, and they are being made. Making them at all is a travesty, if the rest of the world doesn’t need to use them in war then why do we? I would say this demonstrates yet again our lack of consistency. We would like other countries to follow certain rules, but we don’t follow them.
Why I cite wikipedia is an interesting question. Mainly, I do it because it is actually a very reliable source in that thousands of people are reading it every day and it is getting updated in order to match current statistics in a way no other report ever will. Let me ask you this: if modern academia didn’t say it was bad to use wikipedia, where would you go for information 100% of the time? Also, I have never found an article that disproves wikipedia. It is accurate and for the people by the people. It has less bias than scholarly articles as it can be edited by the people holding opposing ideals. Finally, I trust it. If you want, you can google what I say and find an outdated article that backs up what wikipedia has to say.
Next, Iran. I agree that keeping Iran from getting a nuke is a goal. However, the main problem is a question of motivation. Why do they want a nuke? To fight against at Israel’s unjust treatment of the Palestinians. Granted, I don’t think that nukes are the way to go, but I do think that Israel has clearly gone past humanity when dealing with the Palestinians. Basically, in my mind, if Israel would actually listen to Iran’s concerns (and the concerns expressed by other Middle Eastern states and activist groups across the world) maybe Iran would see that Israel is trying to coexist with them. At this point, Israel continues do deny its systemic mistreatment of Palestinians. Israel continues to take away ancestral lands piece by piece through violent military actions, only causing more problems. If you want to do some reading on the subject, here is wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict and here is a letter from MCUSA (Mennonite Church USA, Hesston’s affiliated denomination) http://mennoniteusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2007OpenLtrAndResourcesIsraelPalestine2007June.pdf. So, yes, Iran should not get nukes, but the best way for this to happen is not through another costly (and ineffective) incursion into the Middle East.
Wrapping up, in my opinion and to borrow from a Flobots song, we must always hope that the pen-stroke is stronger than the cannon. One quick example is that the Bible has had a greater impact than any war could ever have, just as thousands of books before and after it also impacted society more than any war. And the only reason I can speak my mind is because I have a government dictated by the people, not by the military, and and because thousands of my spiritual fathers died for speaking out against the government. In addition, I would speak my mind and take the consequences even if it was forbidden, just as the early Anabaptists did, and just as Jesus did. Speaking out against the establishment when needed should be done at any cost.
Hope that hit most of your questions. Keep in mind as well that this is an opinion column, and I know that my personal, radically Pacifist, Neo-Anabaptist Mennonite ideals don’t fit for everyone. Peace.