I just saw an interesting response to someone on another message thread who suggested that cutting support to Israel would stop bin Laden:
"From everything we know of Osama bin Laden, who has not yet been proven to be responsible for the horrifying attacks of today, although the evidence does seem to point in his direction, his hatred for the United States stems from his misguided belief that Western civilization, of which the United States is the exemplar, is a threat to Islam and to Muslim
civilization. While I doubt he approves of American support for Israel, the problem is that he does not approve of America in general. Moreover, showing to him, and to others of his ilk, that terror attacks can push the U.S. to alter a longstanding policy and to abandon a major ally, will only give him, and potential imitators the incentive to do it again and again. If we abandon Israel, will bin Laden, who is good friends with Saddam Hussein, not
try to force us to also abandon our allies in the Persian Gulf? The North Koreans might try to get us to abandon South Korea. Might Chinese Communists not try to pressure us in to abandoning Taiwan, perhaps even Japan? Abandoning one ally will make a lot of enemies and potential enemies around the world think the feat is reproducible. In the end, by trying to avoid terrorism, we would just invite more of it." |
