Hacker News Reader

Comment by finid | Hacker News Reader

Terrorism seeks to change our way of life...

That sounds like the "they attacked us because of our freedom".

No, pal. Terrorists are pissed off because of what your govt is doing overseas. They're really not interested in your way of life or your freedom.

View on HN

We detached this flagged subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14270692.

So the Charlie Hebdo attack was in response to the editors and their... what taking oil from somewhere??

in case you are not aware France was already involved in the middle East before Charlie Hebdo happened.

I'm not sure what argument you're trying to make, but just to be clear, the attackers were explicit about their motivation in attacking Charlie Hebdo, by yelling: "We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad".

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30710883

Depends on the terrorist. Some organizations want to bring about the end of western influence in the middle east, some are delusional and think they will rule the world.

That's true, but relatives killed by Western powers make the survivors fairly ripe for recruitment into anything that feels like retribution.

We started this mess. Recall that we were told that after we get rid of Saddam, that Iraq will become a shinning example for the rest of the ME, and the world. That the guy was such a bad guy that the world will be a far better place without him.

The mess was started a long time age when the Allies stuffed up the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement

It is, of course, easy to be wise long after the event.

While it's tempting to look for a single, recent starting point for Western-Muslim issues, it's also worth mentioning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Martel (about 1200 years earlier). And then, >350 years later, there's the crusades.

... or when the Mongols brought about the end of the Golden Age of Islam. ;)

> No, pal. Terrorists are pissed off because of what your govt is doing overseas.

What about the islamic terrorists attacking in Sweden, Germany, Belgium? Are they also pissed off of what those countries are doing overseas?

Those countries you listed are our allies, part of the Coalition of the Willing. They are part of the International community that we always like to bring up whenever we need to justify our actions.

This is an incredibly narrow view of the situation. What you're describing is only one of several factors fueling the recent surge of violent Islamist attacks.

This is why the consumption of a variety of sources of information on a topic coupled with the application of careful thought and reason is crucial. Dogma helps no one, particularly not when discussing this topic.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com