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Invading Iraq has not made America more secure. It has made us more hated and feared than ever before in the world. That is exactly what Osama bin Laden was hoping for. George W. Bush is Osama's new best friend.
The sons and brothers of the countless innocent Iraqi civilians killed by our pre-emptive military invasion, which we were falsely told had to be done to defend America, will want revenge. They will become future terrorists by the thousands.
Osama bin Laden couldn't have done a better job of recruiting if he had put up store fronts in every city in the Arab world, with big signs out front with his picture, finger pointing forward, and the caption "Uncle O. Sam Wants You!"
But while we are on the subject of terrorists, and terrorism, I think it is unfortunate that we have made so little effort to understand exactly WHY we were attacked on
9/11. Both political parties are equally united in their quest for "revenge", in their bloodthirsty determination to "hunt down and kill the terrorists". The political climate and the public sentiment seem to demand this. But again, this is a reaction, not an attempt to understand the causes of what happened.
9/11 was a horrible thing. Many innocent people were killed.
But shouldn't we at least try to make some sense of the motivations that led 19 men
armed only with box cutters, an insidiously brilliant plan to use America's own freedom and openness against us, and the determination to DIE doing it, simply to strike a blow against America that the whole world would notice?
Were these people insane? No. Were they cowards? No. Was this, as our leaders would have us believe, an attack on "freedom"? Do they hate "democracy", the American people, the American way of life so much? Is that why they are against us? If we truly examine the world situation in the cold light of reason, the answer is..
NO!
This was not an attack on freedom. This was an attack on the way America has
THROWN ITS WEIGHT AROUND IN THE WORLD, militarily, economically, politically, overtly and covertly, for many years. And that conduct has been in many ways antithetical to the concepts of freedom and democracy which we espouse for our own citizens.
For many years, it was Communism. Communism was then the catch word that described the enemies of the American way, that we had to be against, or we were simply anti-American. But then we found ourselves propping up and supporting
completely un-democratic, oppressive dictatorial regimes all over the world, simply because they assured us they were anti-Communist. We found ourselves preventing or overturning democratic elections because we feared the results would not be favorable to American political and economic interests. It wasn't about our American principles anymore, it was simply us or them. And in many cases we came down on the wrong side of what is right. A country can not stand for freedom at home and oppression abroad. The whole world will see the hypocrisy.
Crucial to the Arab world's problems with America is what they see as our unconditional support of Israel coupled with our lack of equal respect for them and their concerns. Israel is "America's policeman in the Middle East." They get all our
best and latest planes, hardware, military technology. The Arabs don't. Israel has used its military superiority to defend itself when attacked, but also to attack towns and villages they designated as "terrorist strongholds", killing many innocent people. Of course, suicide bombers have killed innocent people in Israel too. It's like 9/11 on a smaller scale, but on a much more frequent basis. But these are acts of pure desperation. Only a person who feels completely powerless and helpless would resort to blowing himself up on a crowded bus.
The US-Israel military alliance has created an uneven geopolitical playing field
in the Middle East. And the Arab world does not like it. They were there first. And they have not been treated fairly. But Israel is not going anywhere. They are now an established country. They have the power and the weapons...yes, even nuclear weapons. Most Israelis would like to live in peace with their neighbors. But there are radical factions on both the Israeli and Arab sides which realistically make it almost
impossible to imagine any kind of genuine peace or reconciliation. This makes it unavoidable to continue the hatred, the resentment, the injustice. The unfairness of Palestinian helplessness in the face of American/Israeli military might.
Terrorists. Terrorism. They are the new catch words. The thought of them strikes fear
into everyone's hearts. Folks in Montana and South Dakota are quaking in their boots. They're going to vote for George W. Bush because he's going to protect them from the bad guys...the terrorists...by unilaterally invading and occupying an Arab country and trying to establish a Western-style "democracy" in the Middle East. You know what he is going to get if he is successful, and does not tamper with the election, like he did here? He is going to get a Shiite theocracy, probably hostile to the US, democratically elected by the 60% Shiite majority of the Iraqi population.
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clarita zarate
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