Terrorists use phychology behind their warnings. The intended purpose of a terrorist warning is to get people to turn against their leadership. This is done in several ways. The first involves the stick. The stick is usually the warning that some heinous terrorist act is about to be performed. It usually goes on to blame those in power and sometimes even the common citizens. Many times it will talk about the rich and powerful being at fault for what is about to happen. The stick may be accompanied by the act, or it may not. If it is possible to attack the target without too much trouble, losing a couple of lives in so doing will certainly not stop the terrorists.

Let's look at the U.S. It is pretty vulnerable to attack in so many areas. That is the price that is paid in a democratic society. When people are free, free to move about with out having to show papers at each stop, free to travel and free to make decisions, then they can not be protected 100%. Unfortunately, these same freedoms can be used against us. It is much harder to plant a bomb in a country where your every move is going to be watched. It is also much harder to import dangerous devices into a country that is willing to spend what ever it takes to examine all incoming cargo. Unfortunately we are not willing to do this. We have a reactionary approach to many forms of protection. What I mean by this is that we put off doing something until something tragic happens than we rush to correct the situation that allowed the incident in the first place. That is called crises management. This form of management can be found in many areas of government. It certainly is not the way to run things.

The next part of the terrorist psychology is to try and explain why nothing has happened for so long a period. Of course this is to make you think that they could have attacked at any time if they really wanted to. The truth is that if they could have, then they would have. This does not mean that there will be no attacks or attempted attacks in the future, it just means that they were not able to muster the necessary forces for their dirty deed. Another thing to notice is the fact that God is mentioned many times and praised. This is to make everyone feel that God is against us. What the terrorists are trying to say is that God is punishing us for the deeds of our government. Analyzing this, one can't help but notice that God and killing are almost always used together. As a rational God fearing man I can hardly believe that God wants us to go around murdering each other. It is wrong for anyone to do this, just as it is wrong for governments to do this.

The latter part of the terrorists message is used to turn people against the government by giving them hope that all will end if they revolt. This is done by saying things like, it is known that the American people are against the war in Iraq and against what President Bush does and it would be better to live in peace. Peace is always better and most people believe this, but then comes the threat. You will see that we mean business when we attack you soon. So here we are with a peace message that is really a threat message. It is a request for revolt against the government and even the toppling the government. It is usually made by someone that just doesn't understand the American way of life.

Americans don't like to be threatened. We have responded in many unexpected ways to threats in our past. We may not like a war and we may try everything that is legal to stop it, but we won't revolt against our government. Threatening us and killing our citizens will only make things worse for the terrorists. Eventually there will be peace again and it would be nice if all the countries in the world could get along, then we could all devote ourselves to curing disease and hunger and eventually bringing up the poorer countries to the standard of living of the richer countries.

I am not a genius with all the answers, I really don't think that one exists, but there are a couple of things that I know. The first thing is that who ever was involved with 9/11 and all the other terrorist attacks must be punished. The second thing is that all this fighting is not really accomplishing anything. Both sides are losing people and how is this helping anyone. Most of the Iraqi people want peace, it is just a minority that don't, along with many imported foreign fighters. Terrorists hope that by keeping Iraq a smoldering battlefield that the entire country will turn against the west. I think that things will just continue the way they are going for years. The terrorists believe that they can create a united Arab front that will somehow take on the west, but why would it want to? Many arab countries are quite happy with their situations.

There are many inequities in the middle east that should be corrected. I certainly hope that they will be. I also hope that all this fighting will stop and reasonable people will try and work out their differences. The world is certainly not a perfect place. Some countries have it much harder than others. It is time that the richer countries helped them out. Everyone should be entitled to food, shelter and medical whether they are in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America or Australia or on some island somewhere. This would be a good area to start in. Maybe there is hope for us in the future, let's hope so.