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They Have No Idea Why They're Hated THREAD TWO
The Guardian ^ | 13 September 2001 | Seumas Milne

Posted on 09/24/2001 2:59:36 PM PDT by Billthedrill

Nearly two days after the horrific suicide attacks on civilian workers in New York and Washington, it has become painfully clear that most Americans simply don't get it. From the president to passersby on the streets, the message seems to be the same: this is an inexplicable assault on freedom and democracy, which must be answered with overwhelming force - just as soon as someone can construct a credible account of who was actually responsible.

Shock, rage and grief there has been aplenty. But any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process - or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries, but across the developing world - seems almost entirely absent. Perhaps it is too much to hope that, as rescue workers struggle to pull firefighters from the rubble, any but a small minority might make the connection between what has been visited upon them and what their government has visited upon large parts of the world.

But make that connection they must, if such tragedies are not to be repeated, potentially with even more devastating consequences. US political leaders are doing their people no favours by reinforcing popular ignorance with self-referential rhetoric. And the echoing chorus of Tony Blair, whose determination to bind Britain ever closer to US foreign policy ratchets up the threat to our own cities, will only fuel anti-western sentiment. So will calls for the defence of "civilisation", with its overtones of Samuel Huntington's poisonous theories of post-cold war confrontation between the west and Islam, heightening perceptions of racism and hypocrisy.

As Mahatma Gandhi famously remarked when asked his opinion of western civilisation, it would be a good idea. Since George Bush's father inaugurated his new world order a decade ago, the US, supported by its British ally, bestrides the world like a colossus. Unconstrained by any superpower rival or system of global governance, the US giant has rewritten the global financial and trading system in its own interest; ripped up a string of treaties it finds inconvenient; sent troops to every corner of the globe; bombed Afghanistan, Sudan, Yugoslavia and Iraq without troubling the United Nations; maintained a string of murderous embargos against recalcitrant regimes; and recklessly thrown its weight behind Israel's 34-year illegal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the Palestinian intifada rages.

If, as yesterday's Wall Street Journal insisted, the east coast carnage was the fruit of the Clinton administration's Munich-like appeasement of the Palestinians, the mind boggles as to what US Republicans imagine to be a Churchillian response.

It is this record of unabashed national egotism and arrogance that drives anti-Americanism among swaths of the world's population, for whom there is little democracy in the current distribution of global wealth and power. If it turns out that Tuesday's attacks were the work of Osama bin Laden's supporters, the sense that the Americans are once again reaping a dragons' teeth harvest they themselves sowed will be overwhelming.

It was the Americans, after all, who poured resources into the 1980s war against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul, at a time when girls could go to school and women to work. Bin Laden and his mojahedin were armed and trained by the CIA and MI6, as Afghanistan was turned into a wasteland and its communist leader Najibullah left hanging from a Kabul lamp post with his genitals stuffed in his mouth.

But by then Bin Laden had turned against his American sponsors, while US-sponsored Pakistani intelligence had spawned the grotesque Taliban now protecting him. To punish its wayward Afghan offspring, the US subsequently forced through a sanctions regime which has helped push 4m to the brink of starvation, according to the latest UN figures, while Afghan refugees fan out across the world.

All this must doubtless seem remote to Americans desperately searching the debris of what is expected to be the largest-ever massacre on US soil - as must the killings of yet more Palestinians in the West Bank yesterday, or even the 2m estimated to have died in Congo's wars since the overthrow of the US-backed Mobutu regime. "What could some political thing have to do with blowing up office buildings during working hours?" one bewildered New Yorker asked yesterday.

Already, the Bush administration is assembling an international coalition for an Israeli-style war against terrorism, as if such counter-productive acts of outrage had an existence separate from the social conditions out of which they arise. But for every "terror network" that is rooted out, another will emerge - until the injustices and inequalities that produce them are addressed.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs
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To: frodolives
Some illiterate middle easterner would probably have difficulty with the concept that his or her miserable situation was the result of the culture of the region, and not anything the United States did. Where was the United States when the Pharoahs fell? Where was the United States when Alexander, Darius, Cyrus and others passed from prominence. In 2000 years that region has fallen from the center of world culture to a cultural wasteland. Why, one might ask? And the answer that comes easily is that their culture is too narrowminded and restricted. The world changes. They don't. Take a raghead out of there and give him or her a generation or two in the west to get over the limitations of their place of origin, and they are just as bright and able as the next person. I'm sorry if it hurts anyone's feelings, but the middle east is a pure cesspool and has been one for 1200 years-- ever since it opted for the peculiar Mohammedan religion, which has had an amazingly effective ability to paralyze society wherever it gains prominence, and doesn't have much to exhibit in terms of great ones. Don't hate others, hate the ancestors who some way bound you to a culture of failure and futility.
21 posted on 09/24/2001 4:17:19 PM PDT by mathurine
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To: mathurine
Right on. When women are beaten for going outdoors without men, when women are punished for thinking they can look a man in the eye, when women are punished for, heaven forfend, being educated, you got yourself a cesspool. Let's drain it, with information and education... Well, right after I get to slit a few throats, ok?
22 posted on 09/24/2001 4:23:24 PM PDT by frodolives
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To: Billthedrill
While I don't want to be flamed, I do think that those of us fortune enoough to live in the US should periodically, reflect upon what some complain about.

One concept is the "ugly american syndrom." This is the one that the author tries to paint. This lack of cultural sensitivity and US power has been being a guilt trip of the weak for many generations. The other concept, and one I think has some validity is the US culture as an agent of change in world culture.

Specifically, the French feel that the US culture and language are corrupting their culture. They even try to stop the use of uniquely American english words from being used in their culture, whether we are talking about e-mail or Mickey Mouse. Similarly, our neighbor, Canada goes nuts about US culture dominating their country. The same is true about national Canadian magazines with real live Canadian content. Some of the harshest NFATA negotiations were over the ability to preseve Canadian culture.

If France and Canada have such a problem with the overwhelming US culture, what must other countries that we have less in common with us feel like? Remember some of the stories from the cold war of russian youth listening to bootleg US rock and roll and listening to radio free europe and Voice of America to hear the music and news. They were starved for what we took for granted. Remember in the China student riots how they built a "statue of liberty?"

That to me is part of the key issue. The ultra conservative or orthodox Muslim groups, that believe in theology as a government, must realize how pervasive American culture is. Everyone wants to have a McDonalds or Burgerking stand in their country. Almost everyone in the world wants to hear our pop-music, see our Hollywood films, watch our TV shows, visit Disneyland, sell in our markets, invest in our companies, and experience our freedoms. Anyone who has traveled knows that Coca Cola, Pepsi, Nike are known around the world. There are kids wearing Tee-shirts in countries sporting US pro-sport or college team names who have absolutely no concept of where or what the thing on their Tee-Shirt says or means.

Obviously, the US culture is an agent of change and some may not want change. This is no reasons to kill thousands of innocent people. It may be a reason to put one's finger in the dike of cultural change in an information age, even though it will likely have little impact on slowing the change in world culture. That must scare the hell out of those who want to live life as it was in the middle ages.

So from one who "get's it" as to part of why we are hated so much, I have a suggestion. Maybe as part of our revenge for the Pentagon and WTC we should drop off in all of the middle east terrorist countries portable radios capable of shortwave reception and revitalize the Voice of America broadcast system. Maybe as part of a rebuilding of the infrastructure of the countries we destroy we can provide libraries with internet access. Maybe we can hand out NY Yankee baseball caps and see if they are more popular than turbans with the young people. And as far as humanitarian food aid, how about we send over boxes of Alpian Way pizza kits or Cambel's Condensed soup cans instead of rice or bulgar wheat. Let's really show they what culture change is about!

23 posted on 09/24/2001 5:17:43 PM PDT by Robert357
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To: patriciaruth
that culture pervasive around the world, making inroads into the sanctity of their male dominated, religiously intolerant culture. It is not America's support for Israel nor America's thirst for their oil that upsets them half as much as feminism and sexual permissiveness....in short, liberalism and Hollywood.

I think that you are on the right track with your comments both at to our culture being what scares the heck out of them and us conservatives who will need to fight them so the liberal culture can be sold in their countries.

24 posted on 09/24/2001 5:21:03 PM PDT by Robert357
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To: Billthedrill (so why did bin Laden and 20 volunteers do it? )
After days of postings, what is the reason bin Laden and 20 volunteers did this? Anyone find out?
25 posted on 09/24/2001 5:27:25 PM PDT by ex-snook
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To: ex-snook
He's pissed that we're in Saudi Arabia.

It's sort of like a terrorist organization that wants to see the destruction of China springing out of our society because China is occupying our Pacific Northwest. I could see a lot of freepers joining an American terrorist organization that would be going after Chinese targets in much the same way the Islamic terrorist have gone after us based on some of the bloodthirsty calls for vengence that I've seen since 9/11.

While we may hate the Chinese communists and their suppression of freedom, we don't want to see their people killed, but if they had a complacent and ignorant populace that either didn't know or care that China was occupying part of the United States, I'm sure many Americans wouldn't mind if American terrorists took out 1000's of their civilians if the goal was to free us from their presence.

26 posted on 09/24/2001 6:19:19 PM PDT by getoffmylawn
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To: frodolives
I've dealt with quite a few men from the middle east.They are different,I think my Idea would work.They are very attracted to us,and the worse you talk to them the more they want it.It has something to do with how bad they treat their own women.I learned how to curse in arabic that way.I just can't spell it.
27 posted on 09/24/2001 8:37:06 PM PDT by karebare
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To: Billthedrill
Oh no!!It's already working Plastic surgeon and tread mill,here I come!!
28 posted on 09/24/2001 8:39:31 PM PDT by karebare
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To: karebare
These guy's love American women.The meaner the better.

Somebody should start the rumor that those 70 virgins they're supposed to get will all look like this.
(Allah chooses virgins for their "inner beauty".)
Poof!
End of holy war.

29 posted on 09/24/2001 9:28:21 PM PDT by uglybiker
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To: uglybiker
That is good.How about 70 that look just like janet reno,and I bet the origional is a Virgin!!!hahahah If not some poor bastard was really drunk!!
30 posted on 09/24/2001 9:35:19 PM PDT by karebare
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To: karebare

Just imagine spending eternity with seventy of these!


31 posted on 09/24/2001 9:47:43 PM PDT by uglybiker
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To: karebare

...Or maybe this!!!
(Don't mind the bumps...)


32 posted on 09/24/2001 9:52:19 PM PDT by uglybiker
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To: uglybiker
Oh my GOD !!You are killing me. !!Or are you trying to BLIND me? This is tooo funny!!
33 posted on 09/24/2001 10:01:17 PM PDT by karebare
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To: karebare
Karebare,

Recently I dated a Turk. (Okay, nobody get mad at me...he was really cute!!! Also from the northern region so he looked very European). Yes, he was wildly attracted to my American womanliness. I don't get the feeling that he hated America. In fact, he was AMAZED at the freedom we have! Everything was a big deal to him! Like going to the fair. To me, it was a bunch of fat people eating corn dogs (which obviously he did not partake in) and drinking beer. To him, it blew his mind that thousands of people were going on rides and pigging out, and doing it all PEACEFULLY. I am telling you, the most mundane things were the ones he lapped up like a starved puppy. He was also fascinated by the American work ethic. He freely explained to me how LAZY the people are in Turkey (he said it, not me). He was SHOCKED to see 70 and 80-year old Americans driving around in cars! He said that where he's from, when you hit 60, you don't even leave the house. HIS HONEST OBSERVATIONS! I dumped him when he told me that he wanted to have a "friendship" with me that included an "intimate" aspect. But just friends. No dating. That way, "no one gets hurt". I told him that didn't appeal to me. He told me that no one really waits until marriage where he's from. I guess Turkey is pretty liberal. Either that, OR these holier-than-thou Muslims ain't so pure after all!! LAST COMMENT: He did vent at a restaurant to me one night about how the liberals in Turkey are trying to pull the government into being more "modern". He said that some colleges would not accept fundamentalist Muslim women who wear the "wrappings" (whatever you call them), and that made him mad. It almost sounded like a parallel to American liberals who punish and make fun of traditional Christians. This is my personal experience in dating a Muslim Turk (they actually call the country "Turk-ia", as in Macedon-ia) for about a month this summer. Obviously, Turkey is a lot different from other Msulim nations. OH! ONE MORE THING: He and his Turk friends couldn't stand Somalis! He agreed with me that they are most likely NOT assimilable into American culture. He also heartily laughed his butt off at my mockery of Ebonics. He's say, "Talk Black, girl!" He was bewildered as to why so many in the American population could barely speak recognizable English. Oh, and also he was so proud of the Ottoman Empire. (Like, how long ago was that?)

34 posted on 09/24/2001 10:16:01 PM PDT by rightwinggardeninggirl
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To: patriciaruth
"Now we patriots who don't like liberalism and Hollywood have to support sending our servicemen and women out to die in order to make the world safe for liberalism and Hollywood. What irony. "

There's truth to this. But Hollywood and liberalism thrive here because we have a form of government that allows for freedom of expression and thought. Thus we produce a Larry Flynt and a Billy Graham.

35 posted on 09/24/2001 10:51:15 PM PDT by Theresa
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To: rightwinggardeninggirl
Don't worry about anyone getting mad at you,it is inevitable around here sometimes.

Did you learn any of the language?I've noticed many of them have the same words.Turkey is the most liberal,from what I know,which is not enough at this point.(some of them are really cute)!!But I can't hang long enough,to learn much.They are major horn dogs and I can't go it.

I like those tall lanky American Men.Well,I like the husky ones too!!

36 posted on 09/25/2001 2:24:34 PM PDT by karebare
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To: karebare
Yes they are major horn dogs! And they eat olives for breakfast.
37 posted on 10/14/2001 2:52:36 PM PDT by rightwinggardeninggirl
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To: rightwinggardeninggirl
I can do the olives....but only after lunch!!
38 posted on 10/16/2001 4:15:55 PM PDT by karebare
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