…These events has caused me to think and reflect on a lot of things. I’ve been reading dozens of articles and learning more and more about why these Muslims hate America so much. Justified I have to say, though the terrorist acts which has claimed thousands of lives are definitely not justified. Violence doesn’t solve things, but then again, when one has been consistently oppressed and bullied by a greater power and a great big bully (read: America), you start to understand these peoples’ inclination to violence.
Reading a bit more into the history of what America has been doing to other nations (and in this you need to go beyond what the mainstream media tells you), one will soon realise that America is far from innocent, but rather the greatest terrorist in the world. Maybe i should qualify and say America’s government and their corporate powers, not the people, who can be said to be more innocent simply because they are basically naive and ignorant of what their government is doing in the world.
I believe America’s support of Israel (for the sake of their business interests…ahh, is it not surprising that money is the bottom line once again) against the Palestinians and Arabs in the middle east is probably the major cause in much anti-American sentiments around the world. The third world (Latin America…etc), developing countries feel it too. But it’s especially so in the Middle East, and with most having Islam as their religion, we somehow get a dangerous mix.
Though I’m a Christian I will have to side with my Muslim friends here. I don’t condone the terrorist attacks, but i admire the hijacker’s courage. They are anything but “cowards”. The coward is the American President and the American government officials who have been ordering the launching of missiles and attacks against Arab countries. They can do all of this in their comfortable offices. These hijackers give up their lives for what they believe in. If that’s not courage, I don’t know what is. (By the way, when I say the terrorists are courageous, I say that because courage is amoral. They can make a courageous act yet that act can be morally repulsive, as I think terrorist violence is. Click here for more of what I think about courage being amoral).
And for a definition and an example of a true oppressor and cruel bully, look no further than the former American secretary of State Madeline Albreight (during Clinton administration) who when queried about the fact that half a million children have died in the Iraq due to sanctions placed on them, responded,
We think the price is worth it.
If the death of 500,000 innocent Iraqi children’s lives is a price that’s worth it because of Suddam Hussein’s errors, then the thousands of dead lives (about 3,000) are probably too cheap a price for America’s greater evils. But of course I don’t believe in such thinking: no innocents should pay for the price of their rulers who have done evil things.
But anyway, since when have we mourned for the 500,000+ innocent lives who have died in Iraq? (Let alone millions of innocent others who have died because of American aggressiveness) Why so much outpouring of sympathy for the Americans now? It’s all about the media – the downplaying of the former and magnifying of the later. I have to say that in this respect, I feel very disgusted. One event like this draws so much mourning and sympathy from around the world while the many other events that occur regularly, with many many more times the number of people dead (and mostly as a result of American foreign policy), hardly arrests attention, let alone a tear, from most across the world…