Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA24292 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 14 Sep 2001 12:26:37 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6CFD1@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Why? Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 11:22:44 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Filter-Info: UoS MailScan 0.1 [D 1] Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
I must concur with Ted on this.
One could add the blind eye turned to human rights violations during the
Israeli occupation of Lebanon as opposed to the massive military action
against Serbia for similar violations, or the turkey shoot on the Basra
road, when fleeing people, including civilians were mown down. How parts of
the world have viewed such actions is undoubtdly massively different to how
the US view their actions.
Note how even before supposed suspects were identified nobody considered the
possibility of pro-Milosevic Serbs commiting these acts, or others with a
grudge against the US. The instinct that this was some Islamic
fundamentalist, and we must all stop and think why- and there are plently of
reasons.
Difficult as it may have been, I don't know if they showed these images in
the US, to see Palestinians cheering the news of the attack, it is sadly
reflective of the conditions in which those people have had to live for some
50 years, and for whom America's complicity in their misery, as they see it,
has compounded their anger.
Aaron's comments were important here too. What must be remembered by the
American government is that the enemy they are fighting is waging a
religious war, a jihad, against them. It is not a war against democracy,
not a war about opposing political ideologies, but the modern equivalent of
the crusades. They are fighting people who are willing to kill themselves
for their cause, and they regard the West in general, and the USA in
particular as the root of all evil.
Anyway, all this is perhaps a bit premature. One of my best friends
occasionally works in New York, and was there last week, showing his sister
the sights, including a trip to the top of the World Trade Centre. My
relief at their safety weighs very little against the thousands of families
who's members are not. We need to think of them first, and the why and what
to do later.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Dace
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 2:01 am
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: Why?
>
> > I join Vince, Philip, Lawrence, Angie and Kenneth in sending
> > condolences and sympathies.
> >
> >
> > I also agree with Lawrence that we should be thinking why this
> > occurred. Such a strong statement, what are the causes of it? Why do so
> > many peoples, individuals hate the US so? What has the US done to them?
> >
> > I would like to hear some of your opinions.
> >
> > Luisa
>
> Let's start with Afghanistan. In the summer of 1979, the US began arming
> the Islamic fundamentalist Mujahedin. According to Zbigniew Brzezinski,
> then National Security Advisor under President Carter, the idea was to
> wreak
> enough havoc so as to "induce a Soviet military intervention." This
> invasion did indeed occur six months later, resulting in colossal
> devastation and suffering. The Taliban, who were trained and armed by the
> CIA, know perfectly well that they were used as a tool in the Cold War,
> and
> they're perfectly happy to protect Osama bin Laden, a Saudi who was also
> trained and funded by the CIA, while he carries out terrorist acts against
> the United States.
>
> Now let's turn to Iraq. For six weeks in early 1991, the US bombed Iraq,
> killing thousands of innocent people. The focus was on civilian
> infrastructure, such as power plants, hospitals, water treatment plants,
> etc. None of this bombing had the slightest strategic value. It had no
> effect whatsoever on the actual war, which lasted only a few days. Its
> only
> function was to destroy Iraq as a regional power. In the ten years since,
> the US has prevented the country from rebuilding. The result has been
> upwards of a million more deaths. As Thomas Nagy revealed in a recent
> article for The Progressive, US planners knew from the beginning that
> preventing Iraq from rebuilding or even maintaining its water purification
> plants would cause disease and death on a large scale, and that the people
> most likely to be stricken and killed would be children. This is a war
> crime.
>
> And let's not forget Israel. The Israelis could not possibly maintain
> their
> murderous repression of Palestinians without huge quantities of American
> aid. Recently Israel has assassinated Palestinian leaders and used
> American-made aircraft to slaughter civilians. This is on top of decades
> of
> home demolitions, inadequate water supplies, and informal apartheid.
>
> September 11 was the anniversary of George Bush's 1990 address to Congress
> heralding the war against Iraq. It's also the anniversary of the Camp
> David
> Accords, which removed Egypt as a countervailing force for Palestinian
> rights.
>
> The US has brought terror and destruction to Middle Eastern peoples on a
> scale vastly beyond whatever token retribution was exacted on Tuesday.
>
> Ted
>
>
>
> ===============================================================
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>
>
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