Busherie's boring political vision of terrorism
If you've stepped out of the woo, but it's still dripping from your nether regions, you might believe that the US govt sat back and decided to allow the suicide mission to go ahead with a minimum of interference and just let the chips fall wherever they did. They might have been a bit slow picking up the phone (or moving out of the classroom) on the day, but of course they'd be all puckered up wondering if maybe the intel about the attacks was as accurate as they hoped and that the attack was as they had been told it would be and not some other dastardly plan which might have resulted in even more massive loss of life and, in all probability themselves being kicked out of office.
But if you're free of woo and have a fairly balanced worldview, one in which confusion leads to mistakes and sometimes hard things are easy and simple things are hard, you probably feel the US govt did as much as they could, but it wasn't enough. You may feel that 9/11 was a wake up call for a country which had grown complacent about it's own safety.
And you may just conclude that 19 hijackers did manage to carry out in the US an act of terror which had never been carried out before and that those hijackers were part of a terrorist network based in afghanistan and headed by OBL (whom the US govt had been attempting to apprehend for years and had imposed sanctions on afghanistan through the UN in order to have them hand him over peacefully prior to 9/11).
Thanks for taking the time to write this post. It's interesting.
Question for you: were the attacks a pretext for going a lot further than just trying to UBL? In other words, were they a "chance" for the administration? Didn't they come at a very convenient time?
That is why, by nature, one has to ask: is it possible that they knew the attacks were coming, and they did nothing to stop them in order to take advantage of it?
Now, you say that the US had become complacent about its security. But didn't Clarke try to warn Rice, Cheney, and Bush? Why wouldn't they listen? In my view, the US are complacent because they let the roots of terrorism grow bigger and deeper:
- by supporting dictatorships: Egypt, Saudi Arabai, Jordan. These contries produced the terrorists. Why? Read the story of Sayed Al-Qutb, of Zawahiri. These mad men became what they are because they hate their governments, supported by the US. What happened in Iran in the last 70s will happen in these countries where radical political Islam is spreading. The same causes that led to the revolution in iran in 79 will produce the same effects in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, not to mention Pakistan.
- by ignoring that force alone cannot defeat radical islam. For its roots are misery, ignorance. The US (but also Europe) trade policies contribute to prevent poor countries from developing. As a matter of consequence, mark my words, terrorism will spread in Muslim Africa. Recent US action in Somalia is just the seed of future terrorism.
- last but not least, by ignoring that the Is-Pal conflict is the deep cancer that kills any progress in the Muslim world.
The US is of course not the only cause of terrorism. Actually, they are only seconday. It is a Hegelian rule of History that people, when they progress toward modernity, go through a deep crisis. As fertility rates go down, and litteracy rates go up, there is always in every country a deep crisis. This is due to the fact that people whowere earlier poor farmers, whose world was limited to their neighbour's fiel, is now opened for a new and dangerous thing: ideologies. The list is long:
- Europe: nationalism and eventually fascism
- US: civil war
- Russia: communism
- China: communism
- Japan: militarism
etc... If you check the figures (fertility, literacy) these crisis roughly happened at the same time: transition toward modenity.
So, that is precisely what the the majority of the muslim world is going throught right now. And, ironclly, the muslim transition so far proves a lot less violent, in terms of casualties, than let's say WWII!
What's my point?
Well my point is: we, developped and civilized nations, must understand that they are going through their crisis. It might take a few decades, but eventually it will be a lot smoother. Take Iran: paradoxically, even though Ahmadinejad is a mad bastard, the Iranians are almost through. (2,1 children per women, 95% literacy rate). On the other hand, you have Pakistan: our next bomb. When Musharaf blows up, we gonna have a lot of trouble (Pak has the nuke!)
So, what should we do? Well, simple thing: Do not throw fuel on the fire!!
But that's what the US are doing right now. It is understandable that they were pissed off about 9/11, and they attacked AF. Fine! But Iraq, for christ sake!!?!! What better way to throw fuel on the fire!
I will stop here, but I'm so sad that the US, this great nation, land of freedom and opportunity, sells its soul in a stupid and unwinnable "war".
And 9/11 was the beginning of this. When this is all over, we'll the immense waste that all was.
Busherie
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