by Robert C. Sage

Created on: October 19, 2007

America is the preferred target for terrorism because it is the sole super power and has taken such a prominent stand in its "War on Terror". It stands to reason that if a terrorist can strike fear in America, he can do so anywhere. With Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the Apollo Space Program, America has changed the world for everyone who is part of modern life. It is the acne of power and influence, the inner sanctum of capitalism and western civilization. Hitting the U.S. is the dream of every terrorist, it would burnish a terrorist's reputation for invincibility and prowess.

The extremist jihadists decry the influence of American decadence on traditional societies. They are scandalized by the sexual innuendos on T.V. and in movies. They see homosexuality being tolerated. The news of priest pedophiles and politician sexual abusers along with the prevalence of divorced households and drug abuse is further proof to them of the moral decay in the West. America is the largest and most influential of the modern secular countries. If terrorists can impact America, then they know that they have had effect on the whole world.

Americans facetiously calls itself the "policeman of the world" and often acts that way. At this time, it is only America which unilaterally launches pre-emptive strikes on what it considers to be rogue regimes and installs military occupations. (Israel makes pre-emptive strikes, but has not lingered to install new governments.) America calls itself "leader of the free world", but it is our definition of "free". Only the American president can get away with cockily telling the world: "either you are with us or you are against us" and then to terrorists, "bring it on."

America has been so self-confident that it long refused to believe it was vulnerable.
We were wrapped in our own protective cocoon. We were happy to carry on oblivious to the growing strength of extremist Islamic jihadis, until they hit us at home. Al-Qaeda had had a series of high profile terrorist actions, but none of them had anything like the impact of 911. It was then that America sat up and paid attention.

Until 911, America was largely content to let things happen as they would. Instead of making changes in order to conserve resources, America's voracious appetite for energy and petroleum only increases with each passing day. Instead of listening to warnings of scientists about global climate change, due to greenhouse gases, we persist in our ways. In order to protect our "freedom",

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