So BPSCG et al - what you are saying is that UK and US foreign policy for the last 60 years has had no effect on terrorism and that the Muslims are purely and simply out to get the West simply because of the way we live in our own countries? That eating pork alone is enough?
Does that not sound a little laughable to you?
Yes, since that's not what anybody is saying.
Your article is nothing but a litany of Western involvement in the Middle East. I could just as easily create such a list for American involvement in Latin America, Africa, China or Japan.
It establishes that there are events in the world that could cause hatred of the West. It does not establish that remedying these causes would lessen hatred of the West. There does seem to be something different about Islamic reaction to past and current Western intervention and non-Islamic reaction... in that non-Islamic reaction does nto result in terrorism and Islamic reaction does.
The only difference to account for this is ideology. Non-Muslim Africans are not blowing up embassies because of how Europe and America treated them in the colonial and post-colonial eras. Extremist muslims are. Non-Muslim Latin Americans are not flying planes into towers because of how America forcibly stole Texas and California. Extremist Muslims are. Non-Muslim Asians are not blowing up subways because of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, or because of the Opium Wars. Extremist Muslims are.
If one is going to posit that removing the root causes of terrorism will reduce terrorism, one must first explain why only Islamic extremists appear to be engaging in that behavior.
One must also answer Beeps' question. Why was Germany targeted? Germany is not in Iraq. Germany was not involved in the Suez Crisis. Germany never colonized the Middle East. Germany was never involved in Iran. Israel was created while Germany was under occupation by the West. Germany was not involved in the 1958 Lebanon invasion. Germany was not involved in the 1967 Six Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, Camp David Accords, 1982 Lebanon War, intifada or current Lebanese War. Germany did not publish cartoons of Mohammed. Due to the confluence of history, Germany is a living example of a nation that has given the terrorists what they want (not intentionally, mind you) -- it has been utterly uninvolved in the region. So why was it targeted?
Certainly, it was not targeted because of Euro-American intervention in the region. One must conclude that the West is targeted not because of the intervention, but simply because it is Western.
That's why it is more rational to conclude that Western intervention is a rallying cry for, not a cause of, radical Islamic terrorism. Even if every western nation became like Germany vis-a-vis the Middle East, terorists would still target the West.
It's a discomforting notion. But it is the theory that best fits the available evidence.
