Still do not understand why do they hate us?
You'll recall that immediately after the 9/11 attacks, U.S. officials declared that the attacks had been motivated by the terrorists' hatred for America's "freedom and values." That refrain produced the "war on terrorism" and, more recently, the "war on radical Islamo-fascism.""
Nonsense, said libertarians. The anger and hatred that Arabs and Muslims have for the United States is rooted in decades of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Ending the U.S. government's decades-old policy of empire and intervention would bring an end to the threat of terrorism (and radical "Islamo-fascism") against the United States.
The argument of the "freedom and values" crowd boils down to this: "The decades of U.S. supplying of advanced weaponry and foreign aid to the Israeli government, which is now being used to kill people in Lebanon, and the U.S. government's obeisance and submissiveness to the Israeli government, have had no adverse effect on how Arabs and Muslims feel about the United States. Their anger and hatred is caused by America's freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and rock and roll."
If there is another major terrorist attack on American soil, you can rest assured that the immediate response of U.S. officials will be: It has nothing to do with the U.S. government's unconditional U.S. taxpayer-provided support of the Israeli government .. |
Therefore, the argument goes, the chants of "Death to Israel. Death to America" from hundreds of thousands of Shiites marching in Baghdad last week had nothing to do with U.S. foreign policy but were motivated instead by hatred for American principles and lifestyles.
(Reflect for a moment on the utter perversity of it all: U.S. soldiers in Iraq are dying to bring " freedom and democracy" to people who are screaming "Death to America" and whose radical Shiite government has aligned itself with Iran, which U.S. officials consider to be an arch-enemy of the United States.)
The same "freedom and values" argument was made with respect to more than a decade of brutal sanctions against Iraq, which contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children - deaths that U.S. officials maintained were "worth it." People in the Middle East were indifferent to those deaths, the argument goes. Their anger and hatred were caused by the U.S. Bill of Rights and the gambling casinos in Las Vegas.
After 9/11, the greatest fear that U.S. officials had was that the American people would figure out that U.S. foreign policy was at the root of the terrorist attacks and thus demand a total reevaluation of U.S. foreign policy. That might well have meant an end to all foreign aid to the Middle East and a withdrawal of U.S. forces from the region. That could have obviously meant a significant diminution of the U.S. government's overseas empire and the military-industrial complex, along with the enormously high taxes needed to pay for it all. Thus, it's not surprising that U.S. officials immediately went on the propaganda attack after 9/11 in order to divert people's attention from U.S. foreign policy and toward the "freedom-and-values" motivation for the 9/11 attacks.
If there is another major terrorist attack on American soil, you can rest assured that the immediate response of U.S. officials will be: It has nothing to do with the U.S. government's unconditional U.S. taxpayer-provided support of the Israeli government, or with the brutal sanctions that contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, or with the callous position that such deaths were worth it, or with the invasion and occupation of Iraq, which have killed and maimed tens of thousands of Iraqi people. They'll say instead that it's all about anger and hatred for America's "freedom and values." And the sad part is that there will still be Americans who fall for it.
What would be wrong with terminating foreign aid not only to Israel but also to every other country in the world and abolishing the taxes that support such aid, leaving the American people free to keep their own money and decide what to do with it?
What would be wrong with letting Americans support Israel or Lebanon or the Palestinians or any other cause in the world with their moral support and their own money and leaving the U.S. government and U.S. taxpayer money out of it?
What would be wrong with ending the U.S. government's role as world policeman, intervenor, meddler, and interloper, not only in the Middle East but also in the rest of the world?
With the situation in the Middle East degenerating into ever-increasing violence, conflict, death, suffering, and destruction after decades of U.S. intervention, what better time for the American people to reevaluate U.S. foreign policy, not only in the Middle East but also in the rest of the world?
Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He can be reached at [email protected]
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If we look at all different time in history, small or big governments were never able to crash resistance totally. There is no dought that relationships starts with those you are already consider friends. The poit is instead of US support of democracy in Iraq we should try it in Egypt and Saudi arabia, and see how far it goes,
Wake up! ... I am a Muslim also and came to the US 20 years ago. I am sorry to say that your assessment based on your past 3 years experience as a naturalized citizen is very limited and short-sighted in nature. Yes its true that US is a land of opportunities and land of immigrants and governed by certain laws. The laws that were made in order to benefit certain factions of the world very discriminantly. It just so happened that lately the beficiaries started to become people from contries which the laws were not intended to benefit. That is why there are attempts being made towards changing those laws; Until that is achieved, other methods are being used to discourage people from such countries to migrate or even visit.
Just like US, other countries have their own laws, traditions and attitudes. Either way you look at them, you are wrong. For example: the attitude of the Saudi govt or the people towards (White)Americans that visit them is totally different from the way they would treat you or me although we are Americans too. In fact we would be Muslims and Americans but just not white.
Secondly, the laws of Pakistan are very balanced and fair towards Muslims as well as non-Muslims.
You need to wake up and smell the coffee (or tea).
No human rights or human lives are of any importance when they are violated by US himself or Israel. By any world standard what Israel has done in Labanon with open support of US, no sensible human can swallow the destruction of Lebanon.
A SICK and TIRED HUMAN BEING
America isn't perfect, but at least most of us try to do the right thing and the majority don't rejoice in evil. Can you imagine if Christians started strapping explosives to themselves and blowing themselves up amidst women and children yelling "Jesus is Lord", or trying to send an army to invade Mecca?!! The Christian world would immediately condemn it as evil and demonic, and rightfully so for what it would be! In the Moslem world, people celebrate in the streets when evil things happen like 9-11. Moslems should be speaking out against the evil actions instead of trying to rationalize them, or even celebrate them. That is the epitome of evil.
Thankfully, ultimately God will judge between the righteous and the evil in this world!
Adaab, what in the name of all that is holy are you talking about? You speak like a white trailer boy, yet have an ethnic, probably an Islamic name...classy. Is that all you could extract and absorb from the article? Jeez, there should be some sort of an intellectual standard in this forum, anyone having the mental capacity of a rabid weasel should not be allowed to post, and I despise censorship. "if you hate US stay away". lol
to protest againist the current foreign policy.
Bush and his adm have strong support for Israeli and Israeli can't do any wrong. There are several questions unanswered to 9-11. The commission
didn't care to ask thiose questions.