Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!elroy!cit-vax!beckenba
From: beckenba@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Joe Beckenbach)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Terrorism on American soil
Message-ID: <6218@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 21 Apr 88 20:50:57 GMT
References: <8804151639.aa22746@note.nsf.gov>
Reply-To: beckenba@cit-vax.UUCP (Joe Beckenbach)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 52
Summary: Impossible? No; it's here.

In article <8804151639.aa22746@note.nsf.gov> Fred Baube (fbaube@NOTE.NSF.GOV)
answered an article spinning off from a NSA discussion:
>Earlier in the 80's analysts/pundits/etc were predicting a wave
>of terrorism in the US, and certainly the conditions motivating
>terrorists have not changed, but this "wave" never materialized.
>How come ?  (I'm not complaining, mind you.)

	I think that the anticipated terrorists were going to be foreign-
born, foreign citizens with ideological axes to grind against US involvement
in foreign countries' affairs. True, this wave has not happened, thank
goodness. But the internal source of terrorism, outside the focus of the
analysts' eyes, has not been touched.
	I'm not talking about the neo-whoevers who want to jump into their
own private adventure against Nicaragua or other foreign countries, though
such people do occasionally cause problems. Nor am I referencing actions
by the military at various levels of commitment, such as Vietnam, Korea,
Panama, Grenada, et al. I'm talking about Miami, Los Angelos, Minneapolis,
New York, and countless other cities and towns in at least 47 states.
	The problem is rival gang-like drug organizations. Hardly a week 
goes by without Los Angelos learning of yet another set of gang-related,
drug-related shootings. I have heard that Miami is much worse, being the
supposed port of choice for incoming cash crops of illegal drugs. The LA
Times has been reporting stories of note for several years, though the 
last year has seen a jump in drug-related deaths, mainly armed battles
over territory-- in LA at least a third of the deaths I have seen reported
in the papers have been innocent bystanders, innocent relatives of targets,
or members from the the right gang being in the wrong place at the wrong
time.
	Entire neighborhoods live under the reach of such guns. These are
the same ones which live within reach of the profitable drug trade. Where
there are potential customers, those looking to expand into a new market go.
Where they go, the potential customers begin buying; the business expands
into the new market. And the rules, customs, and regulations of the business
go with it. The big difference between this business and any which offer
stock on the Big Board is that the products are very illegal, and more
profitable than anything else available to those in a position to invest.
	Where does terrorism fit in, you ask? Take a look at the gun in the
hand of the passenger of that car driving by, the one that just put bullets
into two gang-colored youths and one's young sister. Take a look at the
Minneapolis (or Los Angelos, or New York, or Miami, or ...) neighborhood,
with the nondrug-using construction worker who cannot be sure he will live
to see the next sunset when he heads off to work, or if he will live to see 
the next sunrise when he gets home: he lives next to a couple which deals
in crack and heroin, and who could be targets for little or no reason.
Take a look at the high school kid who drives to school in his new Porshe,
with flashy threads and shiny jewelry: his parents eke by on two meager
salaries, and question themselves on their failure to keep him from 
dealing drugs to his friends.

	This is America?
-- 
The gunfire cuts the night with staccato stiletto stabs,
The wars continue: Ethiopia, the Gulf, Panama, Los Angelos, Pakistan, ....