Of Ants and Terrorists After several hours and extensive questioning of family and friends, I decided to write this analogy assignment on the vast similarities of ants and terrorists. I had several topics to choose from; however, I wanted to write about something that relates to our present times. There are dozens if not hundreds of similarities between these two. For example they both live in organized societies, they range in sizes from a very few to several thousands. You could also find both of these groups all over the world. These two “species” are well organized, very meticulous and determined.
For these and other reasons, I decided to write this paper on this subject. Lets start with the organization of these two. Ants operate in highly organized colonies. There’s a queen and every ant has a specific function within the colony. There’s the worker ant, responsible for the construction of the complex anthill; also, the farmer ant duty is to gather food and ensure of a vast supply of foodstuff for the queen. Now lets look at a terrorist group, for example “al Qaeda”, as we have found out from the last several weeks of media coverage, this group is also extremely highly organized.
They have their “queen”, Usama bin Laden, which runs a pretty darn good structured outfit. This terrorist group is based on a chain command, with its captains, lieutenants and foot soldiers. The al Qaeda group has many branches like, finance, operations, infiltration and suicide hijackers. Another close similarity is where these two groups live and operate. Lets take a close look at ants; those anthills destroying my backyard are everywhere. Just below the surface of these insect-made structures is a series of very sophisticated tunnels and caves.
They live, operate and plan their attacks from these small piles of sand. Since the September 11 th attacks we have find out that “al Qaeda” like the ants have an extensive and complex series of caves and tunnels in the mountains of Afghanistan. They use these facilities to plan and train for terrorist acts. They also use these mountains to hide from freedom fighters and justice seekers. Like terrorists, ants are a relentless little species that just won’t go away. Every weekend I go out on my backyard and attack these tiny pests with every poison I can possible purchase from the Home Depot garden center.
They ” ll go away for a few days, and then, wham, they ” re back. Now, that the weather is changing and is getting colder, this minuscule prey of opportunity is invading my home. They are in the garage, the screened porch, even in my daughter’s bedroom. Our country has been fighting terrorism for a very long time.
We have the most sophisticated technology, the best trained men and women in the world to fight these groups, and yet, it seems that progress against these terrorist cells is very insignificant. We bomb their camps, destroy their airfields, freeze their financial assets, disrupt their supply lines, and yet they seemed stronger than ever. These groups are so massive and well organized that they even have people operating from within our land. We keep going after them with all we got.
We are offering millions of dollars in reward and yet, people that have knowledge of his whereabouts (bin Laden), would rather die killing an innocent American that to give him up. Just like the terrorists, these ants just keep coming back. It seems that the more damage and destruction I bestow upon them, the more of them that rise up and try to overtake my nicely kept lawn. We have to do something more drastic to deter both the ants and these “faceless cowards” that are disrupting our way of life. Just last week I called the exterminators and made an appointment for next weekend.
The Termini x people told me that they ” ll get rid of them for a while, but of course that there’s no guarantee that they won’t return. If we decided to nuke Usama and his group away, it won’t be long before any of the several groups out there decides to attack our land again. Anyway, I’ll love to get rid of ants and terrorists, but I know that will not be possible. I sincerely hope that our military have better luck with Usama than me with my backyard ants. United We Stand.