Terrorism

When I was a entering high school the only terrorist group I knew of was the IRA (Irish Republican Army). Around the same time I got hip to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) by way of the press that Yasir Arafat was getting after Camp David. Under President Ronald Reagan we were suppose to loath the Sandinistas because they were communists. On the other hand, we were to support the Contras -- a terrorist organization that was trying to overthrow a democratically elected government in Nicaragua. Our government supported those Central American terrorists by secretly trading with the Iranians who had not long since, well... terrorized our embassy.
Then in the late 1980s a bunch of Middle Eastern terrorist groups became internationally known for terrorizing our military bases. Meanwhile Carlos The Jackal from South America and the Uni-bomber from America were still on the loose. They were terrorists too. At the turn of the 20th century there was a whole class of mostly East-European terrorist with political motives -- known as Anarchist. The Ku Klux Klan was a "home grown" terrorist group/political party that actually fit the description by even today's standards. In the 1990s, living the single life and distracted by indulgence, I was still aware of a long drawn out war in a place called the Balkans; where White Christians in Serbia were terrorizing White Muslims in Croatia. Committing genocide against them. Remember when the ANC (African National Congress) were labeled terrorist by our government because the racist South African government, our allies then, regarded them so? The ANC leads that government now.
Still, September 11, 2001 changed how terrorists would be perceived since. Now terrorism has the face of a Mid-eastern Arab-speaking man in his early to late twenties who prays to the East; and a bunch of old guys in beards telling those terrorist what to do...think.