Want to know how terrorists are created? Let’s talk about it. I won’t be talking about the funding and the logistics here. That is a whole other topic. This is about the mindset. How does a normal person go from living an every-day life to becoming a terrorist? Let’s look at a recent example.

Recently in a newsweek article, Al Qaeda called on muslims to take revenge for a U.S. airstrike against a Syrian Mosque.

The US confirmed that they did conduct an airstrike in that area but they claimed that they hit a nearby building, where Al Qaeda leaders were allegedly meeting, and not the mosque. Syrian sources have estimated the death toll to be at least 46 people; all of them worshippers. In a later statement the death toll was adjusted to be well over 60 people.

Quoting former al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, the militants called upon all muslims, including “the youth of Islam”, to take action against the U.S. if the U.S. did not withdraw its armed forces from the Muslim world.

This is just one of several examples of how terrorist groups grow membership. Some might see this most recent example as collateral damage and say this is just what happens in war. The truth of the matter is, mistake or not, there will almost always be blowback. “Precision” drone strikes are suppose to take out terrorists neatly and precisely. However they are often based on loose intelligence or even false intelligence and they too often take the lives of innocent people. Even when intelligence is correct mistakes are made as combat is unpredictable. Every time a civilian is in the wrong place at the wrong time surviving families seek vengeance for the deaths of their loved ones. Often that wrong place at the wrong time is away from battle zones and instead is their home, school, hospital or food market.
It’s time we discontinue this failed foreign policy. Our policy kills foreign civilians and puts us, Americans, in the cross hairs for the families plotting vengeance. The best and only solution at this point, is to stop funding the US war machine. Every dollar you spend on taxes keeps this war machine of insanity going. One day you, the taxpayer, could suffer the consequences. You too could be in the wrong place at the wrong time when these groups decide to retaliate on American soil. End the madness. WAKE UP.