TERRORISM NOW AND THEN

What Can We Learn from “Former Domestic Terrorist” Bill Ayers?

[WARNING: If you are one of those “We don’t talk about terrorists” kind of people, please leave the room. This piece will not interest you in the least. It will only make you angrier. Go on back to the Reactionary Lounge. This room is the Room for Change.]


American Anti-War Sympathy for Bill Ayers and the Weathermen, back in the 1960s, tells us something we need to know for defeating Islamist terrorism today.

Back in That Vietnam-War Era, Countless Americans Opposed the War, but couldn’t do much about it. We marched, we protested, and the war continued.

The Weathermen Did It Differently. They used bombs to disrupt draft boards and the Pentagon.

This “Domestic Terrorism” Was Unsuccessful. But it was their most-powerful weapon against our immensely powerful government.

Many Against the War Did Not Condemn the Weathermen at the Time. Back then, we sympathized with their politics, even when we opposed their methods.

Right Now, Islamist Terrorists Survive Only Because Their Citizens share a view about the West. If we can change the way that terrorist-sympathizers see the United States, we will be more than halfway toward winning the so-called "War on Terror."


Channeling Barack Obama™ Opposes Islamist Terrorism. And we do not endorse “domestic terrorism,” past or present.

But It Always Helps to Understand Your Enemy. And the sympathizers who hide him....

As Long as Terrorists Have Civilian Sympathy, the terrorists will be able to hide. This is what makes these wars the hardest to win. Whether in Vietnam or in Iraq and Afghanistan, or even here at home.

If We Don't Care What the Rest of the World Thinks of Us (as the Bush administration insists), we will continue making enemies around the world. And those enemies will find sympathy among their people.

Only by Considering the Opinions of Others—and then deciding what we can change and what we cannot—only then can we win over the hearts and minds of those who might otherwise oppose us.

And That Is the Best Lesson We Can Learn from the example of the Weatherman, and former-terrorist and current Chicago educator, William Ayers.


NOTE: To Read What Bill Ayers Has to Say About His Role in the Recent Presidential Election, go here:

“What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been: Looking Back on a Surreal Campaign Season”