Father, Help Your Daughter!

My personal opinion:

While terrorism is a terrible thing and acts of terrorism are ultimately indefensible, I read this article that had me asking a lot of questions today. Questions about what the US can do to minimize it's spread and what the US might be doing to create conditions favorable to it's spread as a viable tactic for achieving a goal among the disillusioned people of the world. I am not willing to draw a DIRECT cause and effect line between the actions taken by the US under the leadership of the Dictator in Chief GWB and any certain acts of terrorism, but I do think that some of our country's actions have caused some of the conditions that create the type of desparation that pushes someone who feels angry, opressed and that they have no avenue to affect change in their lives by peaceful means over that precipice toward the insanity of terrorism. I also believe that it is not unpatriotic to admit that many in the world would view us as terrorists as well. I've seen estimates from 10,000 all the way up to 17,000 on civilian deaths in Iraq. I do not believe that calling that "collateral damage" is logically possible. The day those planes flew into the World Trade Center, we lost a over 2,000 people and it was a tragidy of epic proportions in our country. Can you imagine if we had lost 17,000? If more were dying every day and there was no end in sight? If we didn't have jobs or a stable economy? If foreign troops controlled everything about our country and everyday lives? Wouldn't we be pissed? Would it be considered terrorism if we revolted with any means possible? I don't know...so many questions....This section from the article in Time Magazine online is what caught my attention and has me thinking about this today...

"So why is al-Qaeda continuing to grow and prosper despite the loss of its Afghan sanctuaries and so many of its personnel, and the fact that it has been relentlessly hounded by security services across Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia? The consensus among security analysts is that the key to eliminating al-Qaeda as a threat is to transform the permissive political environment in which it operates in the Muslim world. Instead, the opposite has occurred — Muslim anger at the U.S. has reached an all-time high and continues to grow, driven by outrage at U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by Israel's actions against the Palestinians. The precipitous decline in support or sympathy for the U.S. in the Muslim world after 9/11 has meant fertile ground for al-Qaeda recruiters....

While al-Qaeda's appeal in the Arab and Muslim world has grown in the years since 9/11, the group has not mounted a single attack in the U.S. in the same period. Bin Laden's goals are to rally Muslims to the cause of jihad, in order to drive the U.S. and its influence out of the Islamic world and restore the Islamic empire of the Middle Ages. And the antagonism provoked by U.S. actions such as invading Iraq have been more effective even than the terror of 9/11 in building support for the movement...The last al-Qaeda terror strike on U.S. soil rallied the overwhelming majority of Americans strongly behind President Bush. Whether and how a new terror strike on U.S. soil three years later might do the same remains to be seen. But whereas the 9/11 attack shocked and horrified much of the international community, including the Arab and Muslim world, and drew them initially closer to Washington, it's unlikely that a new attack would do much to reverse the deep polarization of the international community brought on by the war in Iraq."

I think it's incredibly sad that the US doesn't see a problem with most of the world viewing it as one of the main forces which has brought about that deep polarization of the international community. And, yes, I do believe that makes me patriotic. I think a country with as much potential for greatness as the US has a responsibility to be a force for good and fairness in the world. Not a militaristic, economically driven force taking over other countries on the whim of an asanine politician who convinced a few activist judges to give him the presidency. But that's just my opinion....

rant rant rant