by Andy Heintz

Created on: August 28, 2008

The spread of democracy will lessen terrorism in the world, but it will not stop it. Terrorism will not be significantly decreased until people begin embracing reason and morality while rejecting militant religions, outdated traditions, greed, and absolutist ideologies.

Many of us differ about what makes a person a terrorist. U.S. government officials labeled the Viet-Cong as terrorists, but many people in Vietnam considered them freedom fighters and viewed the U.S. as the enemy. Ronald Reagan put Nelson Mandela on the U.S. terrorism list while comparing the vicious Contras to our founding fathers and arming the brutal Guatemalan and Salvadoran armies who were guilty of several atrocities against their civilian populations.

Why were the Nicaraguan Contras not considered terrorists? What about Guatemala's army? Is it because this would mean that we were guilty of arming terrorists? Why is the president who armed these deadly groups canonized as one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history? The answer is really quite simple. The U.S. elites in the country accepted the fact that Reagan had to sell arms to vicious killers to stop the spread of communism. During the Cold War inhumane acts by our government were deemed acceptable because if we did not stop the Marxist guerrillas in the tiny country of El Salvador then the Soviet Union would soon control the world.

The Soviet threat was also offered as a justification for overthrowing democratic regimes in Guatemala, Guyana, Brazil, Chile and Iran. It was broadly accepted by the American elites in government that a country which fairly elects a leftist candidate was not responsible enough to run its own country. The mainstream view of the day also reasoned that we were forced to arm the brutal military juntas in Greece and Uruguay sure we were sad to arm the people who had ended their countries democracies and installed brutal totalitarian dictatorships, but in the long run it was for the best. If the U.S. quit selling these countries weapons, then the Soviet Union would take over the world. We were taught to accept that we were arming killers in the name of freedom.

This is not meant to make light the threat posed by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was an evil empire that brutally repressed countries throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Their actions throughout the Cold War were both ruthless and heartless. But does this really excuse U.S. behavior in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America during the Cold

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