Hi Cosmo,
I share much of your world view. We are distinctly in the minority in even beginning to attempt to understand the motivation of the terrorists who so ruthlessly attacked the heart of capitalist aggression yesterday. I was pretty darn disappointed that CNN would couch the news in terms of an "Attack on America". I beg to differ. It was an attack on an arrogant leadership which has lost touch with the real values it so slavishly mouths while grasping for every unfair advantage imaginable. Unfortunately, a lot of innocent (and a sizeable percentage of not-so-innocent) American citizens were caught in a battle that was not of their making. I feel great sympathy for their losses.
Your three months of travel have a distinctly different tone from what I've read from other world travelers commenting here at SI, who moved from resort to resort and dealt exclusively with the international hospitality industry, never having the experience you did with visiting the local populations. Their view was that the U.S. was greatly admired and considered a friend of the world. Frankly, their remarks never rang true to me. Yours do.
Re: For those of you who have been to an air show and seen our fighter jets fly overhead it is an incredibly intimidating experience. Walking for a moment in the shoes of those we are intimidating, can you see why we might be seen as arrogant, immoral 'great satan' of a people?
My own personal experience is being lit up and targeted by a National Guard helicopter on the quad at the University of Wisconsin in 1970, during a peaceful protest of the Viet Nam War. And yes, the military might of the U.S. is very intimidating, especially when it is concentrated on its own citizens attempting to assert our first amendment rights.
Re: However, for us to ignore the fact that their may be a basis for growing and continued hatred of our country is to miss the opportunity for more productive long term solutions.
Judging by the rallying of both parties in Washington toward a unified response, and the general reaction of the citizenry, I see very little chance that as a nation we will be learning any valuable lesson as to the root causes of yesterday's terrorist attack or how to ameliorate our arrogance and willful blindness to economic inequalities which, IMO, makes further terrorist attacks almost inevitable.
That said, I'm not in favor of a policy of appeasement. Should we be able to identify the organization that is responsible for this act, I'm all in favor of completely eliminating it, as the saying goes, with extreme prejudice. However, I see this as a mere act of revenge that would be a feel-good opportunity for the citizenry of the U.S., but no real solution at all. In fact, totally counterproductive in that it would only help to continue the cycle of reprisals on both sides of the battle.
Best, Ray |
