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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: November 5, 2002
Latest Update: November 25, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

TITLE OF ESSAY

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, November 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

Terror Attacks on 'Soft' Targets Complicate Security By Eric Lichtblau. The attack was on a local hotel in Kenya, owned by and popular with Israelis.Backup on New York Times November 30 article on Soft Targets.

Now comes a new phase we haven't considered in the conduct of terrorism: soft targets. A soft target is a gathering of people usually in leisure, off guard, thinking they are in a secure place. The aim, of course, is to render no place secure. When we can find nowhere safe to hide from the fear, from the stres, the terror has had its way.

I'd like to go back with you over the last several weeks of the semester and consider this vigor at inducing mass terror. One of the underlying assumptions must be that there are no innocents. Sounds like President Bush's "You're either with us or against us," as though the complex political and economic issues of today could be reduced to such pap.

I want you to consider the unstated assumptions about power, about uses of power, about the domination and exploitation of the Other in an attempt to validate and legitimate your onw validity claim or agenda. I want to talk about states of denial and harm to the Other.

More soon.