I doubt there is a person in the world who thinks that Osama bin Laden is anything but crazy, but there's an interesting letter from him (allegedly) that spells out what he sees as the reasons to attack us.
I've been saying since 9/11 that no one has asked the hard questions about why so many in the radical Muslim world hate us. Americans have been pretty satisfied with the "they hate freedom" bullshit that the president has been feeding us. A thinking person would conclude that maybe our foreign policy for the past several decades may have something to do with it.
His perspective is one that the U.S. is oppressive toward "his" religion, which is the radical in him. Personally I think we're equal opportunity when we play world police, but we only engage in the places where there's money at stake. How many humanitarian crises have we ignored in Africa? When we ignore hundreds of thousands of people killed in Rwanda, but liberate tiny Kuwait from Iraq, we give the appearance of money grubbing, oil sucking jerks. The Gulf War was the right thing to do. Ignoring Rwanda was not. Starting a war on false pretenses wasn't a good idea either.
Granted, no amount of poor policy justifies the actions of terrorists, but it does help to understand their motivation. A little external perspective makes a difference. We're a proud country, but pride can look like vanity at a certain point. We have a PR problem, to say the least.
It makes me sad to see we still have our soldiers dying, every day. This isn't our war. They're not defending the colonies, they're defending a nation of people who don't even seem to want us there. Saddam is dead, he was not funding terrorists, there are no weapons of mass destruction, and the country is slipping into civil war. And the commander-in-chief declared major combat was over three years ago.
And the other day, there was a story on the news about how the VA isn't providing for our guys coming back without legs. Are you kidding me? What is wrong with our government?
You're a terrorist-loving defeatocrat! Freedom isn't free. We have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here! ;)
I'll admit there is a lot about this topic that I do not know and could not begin to understand. I had begun reading the 9/11 Commission Report, but got distracted when I moved and haven't gotten back into it.
But I do know this. What is going on with regard to terrorism and the response to it, has nothing in real terms to do with faith and religion.
My question becomes this: Who is the bigger fool? The guy who gains support from his people via bullying and instilling false fear over "weapons of mass destruction"? Or is it the guy who gains support from his people via false promises of salvation and resurrection in the name of the faith they would die to honor?
That's a pretty big toss up. But the common denominator is lies and false bravado.
I hear what you're saying, and while I'm not buying the "they hate freedom" reasoning, I'm not buying "they hate our policy" reasoning either. I think we ignore deeper issues if we just say that it's all our fault because our policies suck. Yes, there are plenty of people out there who hate America for its foreign policy. But I think the hardcore hatred really comes from a different place. Sure, we can look at ourselves in the mirror, but when I see a Mickey Mouse-like character urging Palestinian children to fight Israel and the West and work for world Islamic domination, I'm not sure it's entirely PR.
If we were to do a complete 180 in foreign policy, we might see some of this go away. But I think there is always going to be a hardcore group that will still have a bigger agenda.
And even though there are obvious problems with our foreign policy, not all of it is bad. I find nothing wrong with our continued support of Israel, yet I believe that's the major sticking point with many of those who hate this country on that level.
You're definitely right about Israel being a sticking point, Walt. I can remember after 9/11 they played tapes of Palestinians cheering when they saw the towers going down and some of my co-workers were outraged.... then I asked and they didn't even know what Palestine WAS.
AND there might always be a hardcore group with a bigger agenda, you're right - BUT I think that if the US backed off with the whole "world police" scenario, we might not find ourselves the target of it. I think there being a hardcore group of crazies is unfortunately part of the ebb and flow of human beings as a species.(the Klan for instance? or Nazis?) These groups rise up and are erradicated through survival of the fittest, or squashed into virtual silence. Maybe if we didn't stick our nose out, so to speak, we wouldn't find ourselves the target of the few crazies.....
I'm not even for a moment suggesting it's all our fault. We can't take responsibility for crazy people, obviously. We just can't pretend that our government doesn't do really stupid things.
I've never understood why we take side in the Israel conflict other than it's a recognized nation, Palestine is not. But that's really the rub, you know?