| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 5:34 am Post subject: Western aggression fuels fanaticism |
| http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2005/07/24/1145182-sun.html
Western aggression fuels fanaticism
Britain and the U.S. are paying for 80 years of Mideast meddling in pursuit of oil, London's mayor says.
ERIC MARGOLIS, Sun Media Newspapers 2005-07-24 03:04:08
Having witnessed the first London transit bombing on July 7, this week's fizzled bombings, exactly two weeks later, brought both nasty deja vu and deep relief that the attacks only disrupted transit and badly frayed nerves.
Thursday's incidents intensified the fierce war of words that has raged in Britain for the past two weeks over who was to blame for the original attacks.
Canadians should pay close attention because their latest dispatch of troops to Afghanistan, accompanied by adolescent tough talk, makes them a potential target for attack.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair keeps insisting the young British-Pakistani men who staged the July 7 bombings were motivated by a rabid, misguided view of Islam, and incited by fanatical imams preaching a cult of hatred against the West.
U.S. President George Bush and Australia's Prime Minister John Howard repeat a similar litany: Terrorism is caused by evil Muslims who hate the West because of its values, religion, freedoms and selfless efforts to bring the light of democracy and civilization to the benighted Islamic world.
They insist attacks by Muslims have nothing whatsoever to do with the West's military actions in the Muslim world, its efforts to control or plunder oil, or the corrupt, despotic regimes installed there by the U.S., Britain and France. It's all the fault of run-amok Islam and hate-mongers.
British investigators believe the 7/7 attackers may have had links to radical Islamic groups in Pakistan, which is increasingly portrayed as the fount of Islamic terrorism. Pakistan's madrassas (religious schools) again came under heavy criticism for churning out young fanatics.
Embarrassed by Britain's angry charges, Pakistan's military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, ordered his security services to round up the usual Islamic suspects. A "key al-Qaida terrorist" was suddenly arrested, Islamabad's standard response whenever Washington and London turn up the heat.
Two weeks ago, from London, I wrote that the underground bombings were the despicable but inevitable retaliation of angry young Muslims for Britain's invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Unsurprisingly, I received a good deal of flak.
Still, an embarrassing leaked report from MI-5, Britain's security service, and a study by Chatham House, a leading U.K. non-partisan research group, confirmed links between the attacks, Afghanistan and Iraq. Polls show a majority of Brits agreed.
London's popular mayor, Ken Livingstone, spoke for this silent majority, blaming "80 years of western intervention in Arab land because of our need for oil."
The always-controversial Livingstone went on to accuse the U.S. and Britain of a double standard over terrorism.
Though Livingstone is way to the left of most Britons, his words, echoing those of rogue MP George Galloway, reflect what many Britons think, but Americans dare not say: U.S. political policies and wars in the Mideast were responsible for 9/11 and other terrorist attacks.
By playing Bush's Sancho Panza in the so-called war on terrorism -- seen by most Muslims as a western crusade against Islam -- Blair imported Mideast violence to Britain.
Blaming Islamist fanaticism allows Bush and Blair to decouple their aggressive policies in the Muslim world from counter-attacks by small groups of terrorists. Israel initiated this policy of denial, long insisting its repressive policies in the occupied territories had nothing to do with Arab terrorist attacks.
But anyone who claims you can bomb and occupy other people's nations and not get return fire is being either incredibly naive or untruthful.
Murdering civilians in London, New York or Tel Aviv is a heinous crime. So was, to Muslims around the globe, the trumped-up invasion of Iraq that violated every norm of international law. So, too, is the ongoing U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and the agony of Palestine.
Deporting or jailing loudmouth Muslim radical clerics, closing madrassas, or simply blaming Islam will not stop the dangerous jihadist movement. Terrorist violence is the effect, not the cause. The real solution to this growing violence is changing western policies in the Muslim world. | |  | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 5:07 pm Post subject: Dealing with the core of Mideast terror |
| Posted on Sat, Jul. 23, 2005
The State Newspaper
Dealing with the core of Mideast terror
By ERNEST F. HOLLINGS
Guest columnist
The children's program "Big John and Sparky" constantly admonished, "All the way through life, make this your goal: Keep your eye on the doughnut and not the hole." When it comes to terrorism, our leaders insist on keeping their eyes on the hole.
After the July 7 London bombing, both President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed "our determination to defend our values and our way of life." Yet when a Senate delegation last year called on King Abdullah of Jordan, he counseled, "to stop terrorism the U.S. has to settle the conflict of Israel and Palestine." Again to the same delegation, the prime minister of Kuwait ended the conference warning that "the U.S. must settle the conflict of Israel and Palestine." And President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan ended an hour-long conference by stating to the delegation: "Settle the Israel/Palestine conflict and 85 percent of terrorism in the world will disappear."
It's not our values and way of life causing terrorism; it's our policy of support for Israel. Let there be no doubt: The United States will never abandon Israel. But to effectively support Israel, the United States needs to revert to its policy of the honest broker in the Mideast.
We maintained this policy with successes from Menachem Begin to Yitzhak Rabin - and almost Ehud Barak. Israeli leaders realized that Israel is an island of freedom in a sea of Islamic hostility. Survival depends upon the peoples learning to live together rather than to kill together. But Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush changed signals. Sharon, the architect of settlement policy, ignored the agreement to negotiate borders based on the 1967 cease-fire. Sharon is always confident of the military solution.
In the Six-Day War, Maj. Sharon reported to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol: "The army is ready . . . to wipe out the Egyptian army. A generation will pass before Egypt threatens us again." Eshkol replied: "Nothing will be settled by a military victory. The Arabs will still be here."
Sharon thought overwhelming retaliation would stop terrorism. And Bush let Sharon run free. Now the United States is no longer looked upon as an honest broker.
We've been in Iraq now for two years. If the United States stays too long, we will be looked upon as an occupier. Occupation causes resentment. Israel's occupation of Palestine for 38 years not only causes resentment, it creates terrorism. Being dependent on your adversary for light, water and jobs for 38 years breeds resentment, then terrorism. Everybody with any get-up-and-go has got up and gone. Those left are embittered.
When one has no uniform, no army and no weapons, attacks upon one with tanks and helicopter gunships cause terrorism. One only has to watch Palestinian youngsters throwing rocks at the helicopters. Bulldozing homes causes terrorism. Bulldoze my Daddy's home and you can count on having created me a terrorist. I'll get you back wherever and whenever the opportunity presents itself.
And yes, blowing myself up to do it is not out of the question. Building walls causes terrorism. Preventing me from working for a living causes terrorism. Invading Iraq without cause causes terrorism.
We'll never win the war on terror without a better understanding of Islamic culture. In the Arab world, there's one thing stronger than democracy - that's religion. We liberated Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia years ago, and they have yet to opt for democracy. We liberated Kuwait 14 years ago, and it has yet to opt for democracy. Ayatollahs are the best politicians. The only reason we had an election in Iraq is that Ayatollah al-Sistani told them to vote. The Kurds in the north voted for autonomy - keeping their own army, paying no taxes to Baghdad. The best we can hope for is an Islamic democracy like Iran.
Send a team of negotiators like former President Clinton and Dennis Ross to Tel Aviv to negotiate. An international peacekeeping force would be better than a wall. Support Sharon in the withdrawal from Gaza. Negotiate the West Bank boundary. Then oversee the G-8's giving $3 billion to build a Palestinian state.
Finally, spread democracy through example rather than invasion. No more "with us or against us" and "bring 'em on" childishness. The terrorism war will be won by mature diplomacy supported by economic and military measures. But mostly diplomacy.
Mr. Hollings retired from the U.S. Senate in January. | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
