VigilanceVoice

VigilanceVoice.com
Thursday--October 31, 2002—Ground Zero Plus 414
___________________________________________________________
The CIA's Halloween
Terrorism Report
___________________________________________________________
by
Cliff McKenzie
   Editor, New York City Combat Correspondent News
 

       GROUND ZERO, New York City, October 31 --

      It's Halloween, 2002, just 414 days post Ground Zero when, on September 11, 2001, America and the world was launched into a War on Terrorism.
        Things haven't gotten better.  
        In some ways, they've worsened.
        The recently released declassified portion of the CIA report to the Senate Intelligence Committee headed by Bob Graham, is far from comforting.   If anything, it suggests a long battle with Terrorism, and an ever increasing threat to the security of the developed world.
         The primary source of this threat is what is termed the "youth bulge."    The CIA report, released Monday (Oct. 28, 2002), stated:

         According to the Population Resource Center, a Washington-based public policy forum, in 2001, 30 percent of the world’s population was between the ages of 15 and 24. Although the proportion of this age group is expected to decline, the net of young adults will grow from 914 million to 1.13 billion in 2025. Eighty-three percent of people under age 25 live in the developing world.

  Reading between the lines, the CIA seems to be broadcasting that Terrorism remains the domain of the youth--the disenfranchised youth who battle with the disparity of what they "don't have" versus all those who "have."   And, it seems they are coming to "Trick or Treat" upon those who have bags of goodies, offering more "Tricks" than "Treats."
        The CIA's comment about the "the underlying causes that drive terrorists will persist," has everything to do with economic disparity.  
        Again, the Population Resource Center targets the economic issue of the developing nations versus the developed ones with hard-hitting facts:

           There certainly are other issues besides money at play--social, political, religious.   But the clear dividing line is the cleavage between the "haves" and the "have nots."

         As a young boy I grew up envious of the "rich" or the "haves."   I was the product of a "caste system,"--the military, where the enlisted and officers were separated by a brick status wall.   In pure feudal terms, the enlisted (my family) was the "have nots," and the gentry (officers) were the "haves."
           Knowing I had been born "socially poor," irked me.   I was embittered by the fact that just around the block were the "officers," and that I couldn't fraternize with their children because I "didn't belong."
           In a minor but still traumatic way, I was a "ghetto kid," deprived of the benefits of "normal society" because of my lot in life.    I grew angry at the "lines in the sand."   I retaliated and drove myself to achieve in spite of my lack of "social or economic" status, but all along the way I continually felt I "didn't belong" and that I was never "accepted" in the inner circles into which I so vaingloriously shoved myself.
           The Gross National Product figures of $34,260 for the United States versus $420 for the low-income nations serves only to foster more anger and resentment in the youth of a global world.   The fact that 83 percent of those under 25 years of age live in shattered worlds of poverty and hopelessness seems to fuel the fires of Terrorism for the future.   And since the prospect of "rising above the salt" is despairing to them, then retaliation against the "haves" is an easy alternative.   Instead of evolving with globalization, the youth band together as do gangs in economically deprived neighborhoods and create their own "turf" and their own "government," usually aimed at "taking from the rich."
          Since money can't be the goal, social, political and religious idealism can be the reward.   Sometimes the greatest wealth youth can stuff in their pockets isn't the gold and baubles from physical victory, but rather the knowledge they have brought the "Imperialistic Wolves" to their knees, that they have struck a blow to the belly of the "Capitalistic Beast," or they have destroyed the "infidel" who seeks only to oppress them more with their Westernization, stealing from them the one thing they treasure--their passion to believe they are more right than wrong in their beliefs.
         James Dean's starring role in Rebel Without A Cause (1955) symbolized America's youthful Terrorist Bulge.   In the 50's, U.S. children revolted against their parents,  society, and institutions.  They struck out on their own to prove that anyone "over thirty" couldn't be trusted, moving into the Sixties with the Hippie Movement and ultimately into the Yuppies and eventually into 401k's and Microsoft stock.    Had they not had the opportunity to assimilate into society and enjoy its economic fruits, they too might have become the stalwart Terrorists the CIA is most concerned about.
          The problem of the world's "youth bulge" doesn't appear to do anything but grow worse in the future.   Again, the Population Resource Center provides some population facts that indicate the developing nation's "youth ranks" will continue to grow.
 

         The Terrorism of being "stuck" in ones "rut" with no way out, creates nourishment for the Beast of Terror to sharpen his fangs, and to find some veins to sink them into.   Developed nations are the easiest targets, just as the rich are the first protest point for the poor to attack and claim their oppression and misfortune  is the result of another's freedom and  fortune.
           That's why the Youth of Vigilance Corps is so essential.   Children in developed nations who grow up with the Pledge of Vigilance, and subscribe to the Principles of Vigilance, will be better armed to defend themselves from the assaults that will grow as the population explodes over the nest five decades.
           It is also a key to spreading the word of "Vigilance" rather than one of retaliation, hatred, polarization.    There are limitless, untapped ways to bring the Principles of Vigilance to the youth of the world.   If the developed world's children, its "youth bulge" were to gather  resources to circumvent their peers from picking up clubs and stones and throwing them at glass houses, we can start reducing the future Terror that lurks just around the corner.
           Such a movement starts with Parents of Vigilance.   No one has the right to impose his or her will on another, but one can set an example that stands above the Beast of Terror, and signals to the world's youth that there are other alternatives than Terrorism to resolve the disparity between one station and another.
            This decision requires a parent to look ahead to the future not only of his or her children, but to all children.  Since the core of the Pledge of Vigilance is to take the Right Actions in behalf of the children's children's children, it moves the Duty of Vigilance beyond one's own family, and into a greater world, one of all children.

         When we begin to think in children's generations, we see the need for our own to be protected as well as others from the horrors of Terrorism.   And that Terrorism we talk about is not just about bombs and bullets and biochemicals, but about Fear, Intimidation and Complacency--the emotional as well as the physical.

         Emotional Terrorism stunts anyone's evolution, whether they are in a developed or undeveloped nation.   That Beast of Terror can and should be fought first.  When our children learn how to manage more Courage than Fear, more Conviction than Intimidation, and take more Right Actions than falling victim to Complacency--we will have moved our world and the others who comprise it closer to a State of Vigilance and farther from a State of Terrorism.
            The simple but complex solution to Terrorism is to not be Terrorized by it.  But that takes an incredible constitution of belief, one not easily earned.     But when it is, the Terrorists who bargain in Fear, Intimidation and Complacency will go bankrupt.   When one has no market for his or her wares, trading stops.   When a society no long accepts cowering and stands up both physically and emotionally to Terrorism's threats, the power of Terrorism drains.
            It all begins, however at home.    

           On Halloween, 2002, one of the great "treats" one can give children is the gift of Vigilance.   So when you're handing out the candy tonight, add a comment:  "And here's some special Courage, and some very nice Conviction, and some wonderful Right Actions for you to go along with the candy."