Without Rhyme or Reason
Without Rhyme or Reason
I watched with dismay the coverage of citizens in Muslim countries dancing in the streets at the news of the events of September 11, 2001. I've listened as people said we should have expected it and read comments from people who said we got what we deserved. My initial response to that was strictly emotional.
I've spent the last few weeks reading about the man the FBI calls the prime suspect, Osama bin Ladin. In addition to bin Ladin, I spent time researching the various groups that have come to prominence in the terrorist hierarchy.
Much of what I read struck me as patently ridiculous. I have trouble understanding how anyone could repeat such tripe, much less believe it. For example:
"On top of its own controversial history in
the region, the US inherits the weight of centuries of Muslim bitterness
over the Crusades and other military campaigns, plus decades of indignation
over colonialism."(1)
Crusades? That's pretty far-fetched considering that the Crusades took place between 1095 and 1291. So if I understand it right, we are asked to answer for events that took place 200 years before Columbus made his voyages; almost 500 years before our nation was established? And colonialism? We were not a colonial power. The only colonies we ever had were quickly given independence according to the history books I read and those were colonies acquired as a result of a war with a colonial power.
"We declared jihad against the US government, because the US government is unjust, criminal and tyrannical. It has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal whether directly or through its support of the Israeli occupation of the Prophet's Night Travel Land (Palestine). And we believe the US is directly responsible for those who were killed in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq. .... As for what you asked regarding the American people, they are not exonerated from responsibility, because they chose this government and voted for it despite their knowledge of its crimes in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and in other places and its support of its agent regimes who filled our prisons with our best children and scholars. "(2)
I understand the theory of the antagonism against the state of Israel, but it ignores the historic truth. The Israeli nation did not invade and take land from Muslim tribes. Instead they returned to the land that was theirs for centuries and from which they were disposessed through invasion by Romans, Ottomans and other nations. And what of the Camp David Accords? The continuing diplomacy to keep talks going between the PLO and Israel? What about the Iraqi missiles that fell in Israel during the Gulf War despite the fact that Israel was not a participant in the coalition?
"We predict a black day for America and the end of the United States as United States, and will be separate states, and will retreat from our land and collect the bodies of its sons back to America."(3)
If we couldn't destroy our Union with our own Civil War, it is not likely that these terrorist cells can do so.
"Bin Laden and his followers are alarming because they don't want anything from us. They don't want our sympathy. They want no material thing we can offer them. They don't want to participate in the community of nations. (They don't really believe in the nation-state.)" (4)
So in effect, they condone in themselves what they condemn us for? That makes sense?
Under the guise of a religious war to purify the world of pagans (non-Muslims) these groups are prepared to justify any act that results in damage or death to people and/or property. They seem to consider it a small sacrifice if their lives are forfeited in the process. In his fatwa and in interviews, Osama bin Ladin stated that there is no difference between civilians and the military.
"We do not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians; they are all targets in this fatwa."(3)
The military is guilty because they serve the people and the people are guilty because they elect the government and the government is guilty because they practice policies that offend.
No nation can be right 100% of the time. And there is always more to the story. Many of the "crimes" cited by bin Ladin and his cohorts were not acts of agression, but acts in defense of others against agression. At least that is our position, one that bin Ladin and his ilk totally reject.
The more I read the more I realize that this struggle is without rhyme or reason and can have only one end. Wtih a reasonable party, you might suggest taking their case to the United Nations or to the World Court. But they reject such solutions. They reject the institutions. They reject us all. And that leaves me fearing what the outcome of it all will be. And remembering the final lines of a John Donne poem .....
Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for you.
Artistry
09/30/01
(1) Roots
of Rage
(2) Transcript
of Osama Bin Ladin interview by Peter Arnett
(3) Talking
With Terror's Banker
(4) What
Does Osama bin Ladin Want?
These articles contain links to many other sources of information about these organizations.
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