To: Brumar89 who wrote (13002 ) 3/27/2002 12:55:02 AM From: Thomas M. Read Replies (1) | Respond to <<< As for Islam being considered the enemy, that is surely not true. In the 1980’s the major foreign policy issue in US that dominated all discussion was the wars in Central America, and these were wars fought against Catholic Church, not Islam. The Catholic Church in Latin America, after centuries of serving the rich, had moved towards an effort to serve the poor, and at once it became an enemy. Many terrorist atrocities were directed against the Church. Was there a Clash of Civilizations? No. At the same time, US was strongly supporting the most reactionary Islamic state in the world, namely Saudi Arabia, which has been a US client since its origins. The US was also organizing the most extreme radical Islamists it could find in the world, because they were best killers, and was using them as weapons against Russia. Indonesia, the biggest Islamic state, was a wonderful friend ever since president Suharto took over in 1965 and carried out a huge mass slaughter killing maybe a million people, mostly peasants. He immediately became a great friend, and remained so while he committed some of the worst crimes of the modern era. In 1995, the Clinton administration described Suharto as ‘our kind of guy.’ True enough. The world does not break down into clashes of civilisations, it breaks down into power interests that cross languages and cultures, and mostly are fighting against their own populations. The notion of "clash of civilisations" became popular after the end of the Cold War when some new propaganda framework was needed in order to mobilize people. It does not mean anything beyond that. >>>zmag.org
