Debate

"Who is Osama bin Laden really? Let me rephrase that. What is Osama bin Laden? He's America's family secret. He is the American presidents dark doppleganger. The savage twin of all that purports to be beautiful and civilized. He has been sculpted from the spare rib of a world laid to waste but America's foreign policy: its gunboat diplomacy, its nuclear arsenal, its vulgarly stated policy of "full-spectrum dominance," its chilling disregard for non American lives, its barbarous military interventions, its support for despotic and dictatorial regimes, its merciless economic agenda that has munched through the economies of poor countrie like a cloud of locusts....Now that the family secret has been spilled, the twins are blurring into one another and gradually becoming interchangeable." -Arundhati Roy, //The Guardian,// September 27, 2001

The terrorist attacks against the United States on Septemeber 11th, 2001 were horrifying. They sent shockwaves across America, bringing tears, anger, and most surprisingly, fear, to the most powerful nation on Earth. In total, those attacks left over 3,000 innocent American civilians dead, 2 fallen American symbols of commerce destroyed, and a scared-pantless U.S. government. Flags hung low on the mast, and patriotism was the only thing holding this country together.

The perpetartors of this crime were Islamic terrorists belonging to the radical Islamic group Al Queda, led by the infamous Osama bin Laden. They were a poorly armed small organization, around 10,000 strong. They started out in Sudan, an relocated to the mountains of Afghanistan to conduct their terrorist plots against various Western nations and Arabic states who supported those nations. They were motivated by 2 things: religious fervor, but mainly what they percived as American imperialism. Hearing that sort of stuff makes us laugh, we are a democratic nation, supporting freedom throughout the world. We were one of the founders of the United Nations, saviors of civilization during both World Wars, and we proved to be one of the first little guys to actually stand up to an imperialist machine like the Britsh Empire. So the claim of Mr. bin Laden that our imperialism and arrogance drove him to declare Jihad on America seems ridiculous. Empire is just not in our resume.

But if we put our ego's aside for a moment...let's consider Osamas accusation. Has our "kindness" towards the world since the end of WWII led to the creation of bin Laden? You probably want to stop thinking this way, Bush declared that kind of thinking was un-American, that doubting the "greatest force of good in history" was treason. But continue to examine the situation, force yourself to concentrate. Maybe...just maybe theres some truth in all this. We have fought numerous wars across the world, on every continent in the past century, leaving hundreds of military compounds behind. No country dares provoke a fight with us, yet we have the most powerful military ready to be deployed at any of our global bases. How many dictators have we diposed, only to replace with new ones? How often do spit on the cultures of foreign nations when we "come to their aid?" Consider the fact that we have placed homicidal dictaors at the head of, as well as engaging in deadly wars and inserections against, and not to mention installing dozens of hyper-luxorious bases in the following countries: Chile, Greece, the Japanese island of Okinawa, Guatemala, Cuba, Congo, Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, Palestine, Panama, Vietnam, Cambodia, The Phillipines, South Korea, Taiwan, Nicaragua, Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, Kosovo, Germany, and the list goes on and on.

Perhaps religion, cultural envy, and all the other theories on the causes of global terrorism are just small pieces to a big puzzle. Perhaps...our sins have created Satin himself...


 * Foreign Policy: The primary case of modern islamic terrorism**

Now the above rant may not seem to deal much with terrorism. Why would a homcidal dictator in Greece, motivate a Saudi bazaar merchant to blow up a school? It wouldn't, atleast not directly. My point is this. America's "if your not with us, our against us" foreign policy, it's supprt of right winged nut job dictators throughout the Cold War, it's numerous military invasions and near annexations, and it's empire of bases has made that bazaar merchant feel frighened, and enraged. But foreign policy, as destructive and harmful it has been to our image, cannot alone motivate that merchant to run into his villages square and detonate himself, killing his friends and family. That requires the twisted mask of religion. Seeing 500,000 American troops escapading through the Middle East in 1991 may have ifuriated bin Laden, but he could not obtain a followig in his political agenda withought the guise of religion. Religion is an unintellignt, purely emotional institution, requiring unshakable belief and blind faith. So by declaring a "jihad" or holy war on the U.S., Osama is saying, "Your God wants the U.S. destroyed. They are infidels. All who I tell you is an infidel, for Your God has told me so. You don't want top disapoint Your God, do you?" Think of foreign policy, or own sins and mistakes as the body, the foundation of terrorism, upon which astute political enthusiasts base their "war" opon. And relgion is that bodies sword, it's amplifier, it's relation to the common man. Now that merchant has all the justifiction, and reason to end his and dozens of others lives.