"Washington Arrogance Has Fomented a Muslim Revolution"

Are either Pakistan or India responsible for the attacks in Mumbai? No. The thing most responsible for the reprehensible attacks is the equally reprehensible foreign policy of the United States.

At least since 1953, when the CIA paid Iranian military leaders and civilians millions of dollars to overthrow Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and re-install the Shah, the United States of America has been its own worst enemy. Revolution seldom has the intended consequences, and the Mumbai attacks are the latest evidence of this. In his article today, entitled Washington Arrogance Has Fomented a Muslim Revolution Paul Craig Roberts reminds us of this stark reality.

"It is not terror that Washington confronts," he says, "but revolution."

Roberts continues:

The attack on Mumbai required radicalized Muslims. Radicalized Muslims resulted from the US overthrowing the elected government in Iran and imposing the Shah; from the US stationing troops in Saudi Arabia; from the US invading and attempting to occupy Afghanistan and Iraq, bombing weddings, funerals, and children’s soccer games; from the US violating international and US law by torturing its Muslim victims; from the US enlisting Pakistan in its war against the Taliban; from the US violating Pakistan’s sovereignty by conducting military operations on Pakistani territory, killing Pakistani civilians; from the US government supporting a half century of Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their lands, towns and villages; from the assault of American culture on Muslim values; from the US purchasing the government of Egypt to act as its puppet; from US arrogance that America is the supreme arbiter of morality.

If we could remember this one little concept--to avoid entangling alliances, like George Washington advised us to do--the world, and the United States itself, would be a much better place.

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George Bush Already Knew the Answer to the Question: 'Why Do They Hate us?'

On September 11, 2001, George Bush asked the question, "Why do they hate us?" Some people claim that Bush is an imbecile. I don't think he is, in part because I think he already knew the answer to his question. The way he answered the question, though, besides being obviously wrong, was a blatant attempt to keep most Americans from thinking about the real reason for the hatred.

While addressing graduating Air Force cadets in 2004, Bush telegraphed his knowingness of the real reason for foreign hatred of the United States:

No act of America explains terrorist violence, and no concession of America could appease it. The terrorists who attacked our country on September the 11th, 2001 were not protesting our policies. They were protesting our existence.

Our foreign policy is entirely the reason that we were attacked. Hundreds of pundits and policy analysts had pointed this out, yet Bush could not be bothered by the warnings. He had his plans to remake the world in his image already drawn up.

It has become de rigeur to brand as a traitor anyone, not who sympathizes with bin Laden, but who simply asks America to look at the valid reasons that Osama bin Laden cataloged as impetus for the 9/11 attacks. In his recent book, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, author Chalmers Johnson is not afraid to point out those reasons, as well as to explain why it is paramount that we as Americans listen. Bin Laden protested:

• Sanctions against Iraq, which had nearly all of their effects (including mass disease and death) on the poor and downtrodden of the country.
• America's one-sided support of Israel in Palestine.
• American military occupation of "the land of Muhammad" (Saudi Arabia)

Osama bin Laden is not the only one who is outraged at American imperialist actions. Nor do the ranks of the aggrieved include only radical Muslims (or only Muslims for that matter). Millions of people of all races from several countries, including America, protested the United States' transparently flimsy 'logic' for attacking Iraq--a country that not only had no air force and virtually no massively destructive weapons to speak of, but which also had been decimated by over a decade of sanctions against delivery of such things as medicines, foodstuffs, and parts to rebuild their electric and culinary water systems that had been intentionally destroyed during Operation Desert Storm.

For a few fleeting moments after 9/11, the world was on our side. Most people around the world subscribed to the feeling that "We are All Americans". However, instead of reacting to 9/11 in a way that would retain the world's sympathy, we have reacted in myriad ways that should outrage the moral sense (and do outrage those who have not capitulated to the faux morality of American military might).

Admittedly, it's not all George Bush's fault. Hatred of American imperialism, usually because of our attempts to 'enlighten the little brown people,' has been brewing for about the past 100 years. Our imperialistic squashing of local initiative in such far-flung places as the Philippines, Vietnam, Guatemala, Iran, and Cambodia have earned us the ire of those who wonder: if freedom is good enough for Americans, why is it not good enough for them?

If we don't listen to the rest of the world and start playing by the rules (such as the Geneva Conventions, a treaty, which, by having been ratified by the US Senate, is Constitutionally binding) our chickens will come home to roost.

In Nemesis (page 18), Johnson quotes James Madison

Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded.

In no instance where the US has intervened since 1947 on behalf of democracy has democracy been the actual result. However, a plethora of current and former dictators can thank American foreign policy for their continuance in dominance over their peoples.

Madison went on to say

...war comprises and develops the germ of every other [enemy of liberty]. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. The same malignant aspect...may be traced to the inequality of fortunes, and opportunities for fraud, ...and in the degeneracy of manner and of morals... No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

Such loss of liberty has been the result in nearly every country in which we have intervened, and the same result is occurring here in America. So does George Bush know why they hate us? I think he does. At any rate, if he does, he's a liar and a megalomaniac. If he doesn't, he's a dunce.

Either way, George Bush is not fit to be president of the United States. I'm glad I never voted for him!

. . .

Frank Staheli served in the US Army National Guard for nearly 25 years, including 2 tours during Operation Iraqi Freedom (one in Iraq). He also writes for SimpleUtahMormonPolitics.com. Please click on the links below for SUMP articles related to the subject of this article.

• Imperialism and Environmentalism: The Twin Pillars of American Suicide
• With Imperialists Like These, Who Needs Communists?
• Confronting the Radical Islamic Monster: Benazir Bhutto "Got" It
• Crafting the Iranian Enemy: Part 1
• Are We Really Fighting the War on Terror? Or Are We Carefully Capitulating to the Perfect Political Paradox?

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