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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (8883)	11/4/2001 10:32:27 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hawkmoon, Re: Thus, you have to decide which one is the greater evil.. "our" conspiracy, or their's? I've repeatedly stated that OBL has to go. And his ilk needs to be made ineffectual in whatever way possible. That said, I think it is irresponsible for American citizens to blindly follow suspect leadership. You seem to want to reduce the issue to a simplistic white versus black, us versus them question. I'm frankly a bit surprised that you'd couch the discussion in such a sophomoric fashion. U.S. foreign policy, of which the current action in Afghanistan is a mere cog in the machinery, has a multiplicity of purposes. Some of these governmental purposes, I will submit, are not aimed at benefiting the great masses of Americans, rather, are designed to aid the interests of certain special interests, banks and multinational corporations, the most obvious of these. My point, and I did have one, was to get thoughtful readers to consider what purposes are being served in the Afghanistan campaign. If the idea is that we're merely out for revenge, number one and eliminating a dangerous lunatic, then I think that we're going to be sadly disappointed by the results we will achieve. Because entering into the world of reprisal and revenge with the al Qaeda crowd is simply playing into their game. It will be the best recruitment tool imaginable, and as you can see in the press, there are already plenty of Arab-Americans and Afghani-Britons, and vice versa, who have become radicalized by our actions in Afghanistan. Sure, we need to eliminate Bin Laden, and I'm gratified to see that he's becoming a lot more hysterical in his pronouncements, as he was on Saturday, because it means he's losing his grip on the situation. But I also think it is profoundly important for Americans to understand just why it is that we lost the World Trade Center Towers, and why the Pentagon was attacked. It wasn't because America represents "freedom and democracy" as George Bush would have the naive believe. The real reason these symbols of American finance and military might were attacked was because of the huge resentments of foreign, indeed almost alien, cultures to the imposition of America's will in their region of the world. And I for one think they have some legitimate gripes about the arrogance, domineering and vulgarity of the American power that is projected their way. Do we prop up repressive and corrupt regimes in the region? Are there any other kind? Have we consistently played the oil game with the idea of giving the native populations who live above the resource the absolute least remuneration possible? Absolutely. Is this greedy attitude by the businessmen of the West resented? Absolutely. And have we occupied sovereign Saudi territory with the intention of protecting the interests of the multinationals? Of course that's why we are there. So, I simply request that readers think a bit deeper than to believe the 9/11 was the instigation of "new" history, brought about by a madman. It is no such thing. It is simply the blowback we can expect for the arrogance of our attempts to assert our will in a remarkably different culture, halfway around the globe from our own domestic borders. Coming soon ~ Some comments on WTO at Doha. "Free market" traders need to meet in police states? What's this all about? Best, Ray :)