Following the horrific recent shooting in Kansas by 73-year-old right-wing extremist Frazier Glenn Cross, CNN's Peter Bergen and David Sterman released a report, entitled, "U.S. right wing extremists more deadly than jihadists." The numbers released in the report were quite troubling, to say the least.
In this report, the following was written:
"...since 9/11 extremists affiliated with a variety of far-right wing ideologies, including white supremacists, anti-abortion extremists and anti-government militants, have killed more people in the United States than have extremists motivated by al Qaeda's ideology. According to a count by the New America Foundation, right wing extremists have killed 34 people in the United States for political reasons since 9/11. (The total includes the latest shootings in Kansas, which are being classified as a hate crime).
By contrast, terrorists motivated by al Qaeda's ideology have killed 23 people in the United States since 9/11.
(Although a variety of left wing militants and environmental extremists have carried out violent attacks for political reasons against property and individuals since 9/11, none have been linked to a lethal attack, according to research by the New America Foundation.)"
The report also said this:
"...since 9/11 none of the more than 200 individuals indicted or convicted in the United States of jihadist terrorism have acquired or used chemical or biological weapons or their precursor materials, while 13 individuals motivated by right wing extremists ideology, one individual motivated by left-wing extremist ideology, and two with idiosyncratic beliefs, used or acquired such weapons or their precursors."
The article then goes on to compare the lack of media attention to these violent acts by right-wing extremists to the overload of media attention to such attacks by "foreign" terrorists, as it concluded the matter with the following paragraph:
"Today in the United States, al Qaeda-type terrorism is the province of individuals with no real connection to foreign terrorists, aside from reading their propaganda online. Given this, it becomes harder to explain, in terms of American national security, why violence by homegrown right wing extremists receives substantially less attention than does violence by homegrown jihadist militants."
It amazes me how we spend so much time, energy, and money on building an over-the-top military due to the paranoia brought about by an attack which occurred 12.5 years ago. It's a ghost that haunts much of this country to this day, with regard to: Debt, liberties, xenophobia, racism, priorities, and paranoia. At some point, we're going to have to ask ourselves, "Is the ghost more real and troubling than that which stares us in the face, or would it be best to allow that ghost to fly away in the past and deal with what affects us today and in the future?" While past events will inevitably dictate who we become in the present, if our mindsets and lives remain in the past, it will prevent us from progressing in the future.
http://us.cnn.com/2014/04/14/opinion/bergen-sterman-kansas-shooting/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter
In this report, the following was written:
"...since 9/11 extremists affiliated with a variety of far-right wing ideologies, including white supremacists, anti-abortion extremists and anti-government militants, have killed more people in the United States than have extremists motivated by al Qaeda's ideology. According to a count by the New America Foundation, right wing extremists have killed 34 people in the United States for political reasons since 9/11. (The total includes the latest shootings in Kansas, which are being classified as a hate crime).
By contrast, terrorists motivated by al Qaeda's ideology have killed 23 people in the United States since 9/11.
(Although a variety of left wing militants and environmental extremists have carried out violent attacks for political reasons against property and individuals since 9/11, none have been linked to a lethal attack, according to research by the New America Foundation.)"
The report also said this:
"...since 9/11 none of the more than 200 individuals indicted or convicted in the United States of jihadist terrorism have acquired or used chemical or biological weapons or their precursor materials, while 13 individuals motivated by right wing extremists ideology, one individual motivated by left-wing extremist ideology, and two with idiosyncratic beliefs, used or acquired such weapons or their precursors."
The article then goes on to compare the lack of media attention to these violent acts by right-wing extremists to the overload of media attention to such attacks by "foreign" terrorists, as it concluded the matter with the following paragraph:
"Today in the United States, al Qaeda-type terrorism is the province of individuals with no real connection to foreign terrorists, aside from reading their propaganda online. Given this, it becomes harder to explain, in terms of American national security, why violence by homegrown right wing extremists receives substantially less attention than does violence by homegrown jihadist militants."
It amazes me how we spend so much time, energy, and money on building an over-the-top military due to the paranoia brought about by an attack which occurred 12.5 years ago. It's a ghost that haunts much of this country to this day, with regard to: Debt, liberties, xenophobia, racism, priorities, and paranoia. At some point, we're going to have to ask ourselves, "Is the ghost more real and troubling than that which stares us in the face, or would it be best to allow that ghost to fly away in the past and deal with what affects us today and in the future?" While past events will inevitably dictate who we become in the present, if our mindsets and lives remain in the past, it will prevent us from progressing in the future.
http://us.cnn.com/2014/04/14/opinion/bergen-sterman-kansas-shooting/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter
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