Turning to Terrorism From a Bad Economy?

He Looked Happy On His Facebook Page ......

Being here in New York while the latest terror attempt went on has been pretty interesting. It's the top story by far, and everyone here is relieved that Faisal Shahzad was picked up by police before he was able to get out of the US. For those of you who don't know how he was caught, he scratched off the VIN number on the Pathfinder he bought - but didn't know the VIN is also on the engine block as well. That got authorities in touch with the seller of the car, who gave them Shahzad's info. Case closed....

The question that everyone asks is 'Why?'. Most of the time, the culprit has some long-term agenda of hatred against the United States, but from all accounts, Shahzad doesn't fit that profile. The guy had a family, friends, and worked in the US three years before September 11th, with no signs of this type of behavior. In short, he's like most of the Muslim-Americans that I know. The amount of info they had on him in 24 hours was sick - his education, job history, marriage info, home purchase - even where he shopped all the time. It's no different than you or I. So, what happened?

This is the scary part. Shahzad had pretty steady employment for a while, but never distinguished himself, and his string was starting to run out. He lost his home, he ran out of money. Basically, he was running into the same thing that millions of people are fighting now - the battle to survive in America. Somehow, Shahzad just viewed his troubles not as his own fault, but as America's. Most of us just piss and moan, then keep battling. Shahzad decided to volunteer to be a pawn for terrorists.

It's crazy that people's viewpoints get so twisted, but it happens I guess. You and I continue on, but Shahzad and losers like him (Oswald, Sirhan, Ray, etc.) decide that someone has to pay. Fortunately, Shahzad's was as good a bomber as he was a financial analyst, so his plan literally went up in smoke. Still, it's classic - Bad Times turn many Good People into bad ones....

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