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Originally posted by brianna
sure, and as i said these two things are not what americans think of when the president says "terrorism" and he knows that. he is intentionally trying to associate iraq directly with 9/11 terrorism by walking a thin line between truth and fact manipulation. the average american defines terrorism as "muslims who are associated with al queda and 9/11 and hate americans" this is why the're willing to call iraqi's terrorists and members of the IRA not terrorists.
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You can not mention terrorism without Al Qaeda being a part of the discussion. No more than you can mention Democratic Presidential Candidates without mentioning John Kerry (it's simply an example not a dig at the Dems). The two are inextricably linked because of the success of the attacks on 9/11. It's not about fooling the American people it's about fighting terrorism because the US and the international community has done a piss poor job of it for the last 30+ years.
We are not just at war with Al Qaeda. There are many reasons you can't only focus on Bin Laden's group. First and foremost is the fact that the success of the attacks on 9/11 emboldens the other groups and creates a need for them to step up activities to garner support for their causes.
As far as members of the IRA not being considered terrorists, since when? Certainly it could be looked at that way within the Irish enclaves of the US where the IRA obtained considerable support but it's not true of the vast majority of Americans. Ask an average person a decade or so ago what the IRA was and they'd almost to a person say an Irish terrorist organization. Of course, they've quieted down considerably since their heavily active period so the recognition of them today among Americans is pretty low.
The reason that Americans associate terrorism with Muslims is the simple fact that the vast majority of recent terrorist attacks against US citizens and interests have been perpetrated by Muslim extremists from the Middle East.