Consequential Reality

It is not difficult to discern why
those who oppress, threaten, torture
and slaughter are terrorists. Their
implacable ideology both condones
and encourages the murder of those
whom they recognize as opponents
to their unstoppable drive to control
and suppress, on their way to universal
conquest; an aspiration so ancient it
has been consequential in the mass
murder of a substantial proportion
of the world's population at any given
time. The modern twist to that 
historical recognition of survival
of the masses destined for genocide 
in crimes against humanity is that the 
opposition to terrorism derives from 
state military forces facing an enemy 
that respects no boundaries reflecting 
human decency using all means at 
their disposal to fend off extermination 
of their plans and so hapless civilians 
become shields falling to the assaults 
by principled governments setting out 
to free the shackled populations, in 
the process themselves racking up a 
horrendous tally of dead, earning 
condemnation, advantaging terror.