In many cities around the world, acts of terror have become a way of life. A car bomb explodes in Damascus. A government official is kidnapped in Kabul. Sarin gas is released on a Japanese commuter train.
Americans up to recent years have had the luxury of being shielded from the horrors of terrorist acts, seeing only their aftermath on the nightly news, and only when they neglect to change the channel; the prevailing attitude being “better there than here.”
But increasingly over the last couple of decades, we have had their fair share of terrorist activity right here in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
February 26, 1993: The World Trade Center bombing kills six and injures over 1000 people, perpetrated by coalition of five Islamic jihadist groups.
April 19, 1995: The Alfred P. Murrah building becomes the location of the most devastating act of domestic terrorism on U.S. soil to date, when Timothy McVeigh kills 168 with a fertilizer bomb.
July 27, 1996: Eric Rudolph detonates a bomb at Centennial Olympic Park, in Atlanta, GA. disrupting the Olympics killing two and wounding 111.
And no one can forget the events of 9/11, or the recent Boston Marathon bombings. These and many other incidences are starting to open our eyes, forcing us to accept the fact that what we thought only happened on the 6 O’clock news, is happening in our own backyard.
This not-in-my-backyard attitude has provided shelter from the global reality of radical extremism for so long, that we feel immune to its effects. For far too long our closed eyes have separated us from the reality that we too are part of the bigger global picture.
Americans have been willing to rest easy, cradled in the warm comforting blanket of false security, thinking nothing could touch us. This cloistered attitude has fostered a kind of laziness, that only recently have we started to see through.
Bombs aren’t just for Beirut anymore.
This welcome to the world’s victim community shouldn’t shock us. We have played our part in collecting enemies around the globe, and some of them don’t play fair. From riding in like a knight in red, white and blue armor, to arrogantly trying to dictate to the other nations how their societies should advance, we have committed transgressions that can only garner the wrong king of attention.
No one, of any nationality or creed should ever have to suffer the devastation wrought by terrorists, but sadly, in the age we currently inhabit, pipe bombs and AK-47’s are the reality, and brutality, cyber-terrorism and non-traditional warfare have become the norm.
The grasp of terrorism is far-reaching, and time has come to realize we can all be touched by it.