.
But
WHY do they hate us?
The despicable terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon was inexcusable. Unfortunately, it was also inevitable. If we do not
try to understand the mindset of the people who did this, we will only witness
new and worse atrocities on US soil. The question almost no one is seriously
asking is: WHY? Why do some people hate us enough to murder 6,000 Americans, or
cheer those who did?
The simplistic answers trotted out -- distaste for Western values, ethnic and
religious hatreds, anger about being left behind by globalization -- reveal a
mind-boggling self-deception. Indeed, keeping the US public blissfully unware of
the suffering abroad required to maintain our standard of living is one of the
principal aims of US foreign policy. We always fight our wars in other
people’s homelands. Now war has come to America. The chickens have come home
to roost.
After World War II, the US inherited the mantle of empire from a weakened
England and France. Since then, we have intervened in nations around the world
and launched hundreds of “covert operations,” which have resulted in the
death, disappearance, torture and repression of literally millions of people on
every continent. Remember Vietnam? The installation of the Shah in Iran? The
“secret” wars that killed over 100,000 in Central
America? The endless wars from the Congo to southern Africa to Indonesia to
Colombia to Yugoslavia and points in between? The justification was usually
anti-Communism, but since the destruction of the Soviet Union, these actions
have continued unabated, creating more victims with more grievances and more
burning desire for revenge.
Our single biggest covert operation was in Afghanistan after the 1979 Soviet
invasion. The CIA (working through Pakistani intelligence) armed and trained an
estimated 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 nations, including a Saudi named...
Osama bin Laden, now identified as the chief suspect of the September 11 attack.
We fanned the flames of Islamic radicalism that not only drove the Soviets from
Afghanistan (leading to today’s Taliban government) , but helped break up the
Soviet Union.
But having defeated one superpower, our star pupil then turned on the other
source of misery in the Middle East: us. By prioritizing access to oil, and
ignoring issues of human rights and democracy for millions of impoverished
Arabs, we have created legions of enemies. During the Gulf War, we too attacked
civilians and non-military targets like water treatment plants. The economic
embargo against Iraq has killed an estimated 500,000 children from starvation,
the equivalent of 100 Trade Center bombings. We bankroll Israeli military
occupation, bulldozing of Palestinian homes, assassination of Palestinian
leaders and denial of Palestinian rights to statehood. THAT’S why some
Palestinians danced for joy at the unspeakable horror of September 11.
If all of these victims have a “distaste for Western values,” it is because
they recognize that these values include ruthless brutality in service to
transnational corporate interests.
How do we prevent a recurrence of this tragedy? By a military buildup, bombing
or invading countries that harbor terrorists and curtailing civil liberties?
Violence only begets violence, as hate begets hate. As Gandhi said, “An eye
for an eye will leave the whole world blind.” If we accept “collateral
damage” to civilians in service to our geopolitical aims, have we not sunk
precisely to the moral level of the terrorists? Certainly, the architects of the
attack must be apprehended and brought to justice in accordance with
international law. And then what? Unless we dramatically shift our foreign
policy from maintaining global economic and military dominance to sharing the
world’s wealth with the people of the world, new Osama bin Ladens will arise.
Indeed, how many are on the CIA payroll right now?
In this interdependent world, oceans no longer protect us. We are only secure
when everyone is secure. If we do not learn the lessons of history, we will be
doomed to repeat them, at an unimaginable cost.
Eric Fried
Fort Collins, CO
[Eric Fried is a native New Yorker with many friends and
family who live and work in Manhattan.]
This Soapbox was printed in the Fort Collins Coloradoan
9/24/01