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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rock_nj who wrote (293110)	9/4/2002 3:24:23 PM
From: GROUND ZERO™	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Okay, so you hate America... why not just admit it? GZ

To: Rock_nj who wrote (293110)	9/4/2002 7:28:33 PM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Do you have some historical sources to back up your "historical facts"....

To: Rock_nj who wrote (293110)	9/4/2002 9:23:26 PM
From: DavesM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Rock, re:"Do you have your head in the sand? I'm talking about historical facts that anyone can look up. Iran had a budding Democracy in the early 1950s that we crushed when they moved to nationalize their oil supplies" I don't think you know anything about "Historical facts". The "Democratic Leader" you are referring to, before being deposed, had been granted near dictatorial power by the National Assembly (which is why he had the power to nationalize oil), then he tried to dissolve the very same Assembly. How's that for your budding Iranian democracy? As far as the Soviet threat goes, for Iran it was real. After the Second World War, the Soviets occupied northern Iran. They basically didn't leave, until threatened by Truman.

To: Rock_nj who wrote (293110)	9/4/2002 10:47:14 PM
From: MSI	Respond to of 769670

Confronting Anti-American Grievances By Zbigniew Brzezinski New York Times \| Opinion Sunday, 1 September, 2002 WASHINGTON -- Nearly a year after the start of America's war on terrorism, that war faces the real risk of being hijacked by foreign governments with repressive agendas. Instead of leading a democratic coalition, the United States faces the risk of dangerous isolation. The Bush administration's definition of the challenge that America confronts has been cast largely in semireligious terms. The public has been told repeatedly that terrorism is "evil," which it undoubtedly is, and that "evildoers" are responsible for it, which doubtless they are. But beyond these justifiable condemnations, there is a historical void. It is as if terrorism is suspended in outer space as an abstract phenomenon, with ruthless terrorists acting under some Satanic inspiration unrelated to any specific motivation. President Bush has wisely eschewed identifying terrorism with Islam as a whole and been careful to stress that Islam as such is not at fault. But some supporters of the administration have been less careful about such distinctions, arguing that Islamic culture in general is so hostile to the West, and especially to democracy, that it has created a fertile soil for terrorist hatred of America. Missing from much of the public debate is discussion of the simple fact that lurking behind every terroristic act is a specific political antecedent. That does not justify either the perpetrator or his political cause. Nonetheless, the fact is that almost all terrorist activity originates from some political conflict and is sustained by it as well. That is true of the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland, the Basques in Spain, the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, the Muslims in Kashmir and so forth. In the case of Sept. 11, it does not require deep analysis to note -- given the identity of the perpetrators -- that the Middle East's political history has something to do with the hatred of Middle Eastern terrorists for America. The specifics of the region's political history need not be dissected too closely because terrorists presumably do not delve deeply into archival research before embarking on a terrorist career. Rather, it is the emotional context of felt, observed or historically recounted political grievances that shapes the fanatical pathology of terrorists and eventually triggers their murderous actions. American involvement in the Middle East is clearly the main impulse of the hatred that has been directed at America. There is no escaping the fact that Arab political emotions have been shaped by the region's encounter with French and British colonialism, by the defeat of the Arab effort to prevent the existence of Israel and by the subsequent American support for Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians, as well as by the direct injection of American power into the region. This last has been perceived by the more fanatical elements in the region as offensive to the sacred religious purity of Saudi Arabian custodianship of Islam's holy places and as hurtful to the welfare of the Iraqi people. The religious aspect adds fervor to their zeal, but it is worth noting that some of the Sept. 11 terrorists had non-religious lifestyles. Their attack on the World Trade Center had a definite political cast to it. Yet there has been a remarkable reluctance in America to confront the more complex historical dimensions of this hatred. The inclination instead has been to rely on abstract assertions like terrorists "hate freedom" or that their religious background makes them despise Western culture.