Ok, I've read some your points about the war on terrorism and it disturbs me that many American (and some European) readers have missed the point .
First, the prisoners in Cuba.
1. The outside world has yet to see any evidence that these people are guilty of anything.
2. George Bush cannot say that we ae fighting a war on terrorism, take prisoners and then say that they are not POW.
3. As one poster has already said, this is a war about western values. America, by ignoring the human rights of these prisoners is gifting Al Quaeda more fuel for their anti-America/West protests.
Secondly, the 'War on Terrorism'
1. It disgusts me that America talks about a war on terrorism when it suits the US, after years of allowing American citizens and corporations to fund terrorism in Nothern Ireland.
2. By making terrorism a legitimate reason for all out war on another country has given every nation in the world an excuse for launching attacks on its enemies. See India and Pakistan
3. In answer to Belle's point in another post about the justification of the treatment of these prisoners because of their atrocities in Afghanistan. I'm sorry, but this is incredibly naive. The Taleban regime was awful, and had an applaing human rights record. But lets not forget that it was the West that put them (and bin laden) there in the first place, as a counter to the Russian invasion. Also, I hate the way politicians (including mine here, in Britain) make out that the fall of the Taleban was in some way always planned. It wasn't. The Taleban was allowed to govern for around six, seven years - the West only intervened because of bin Laden. It had NOTHING to do with Taleban atrocities. If you belive it was some kind of moral crusade then why hasn't the West intervened in Chechnya and Zimbabwe. Why didn't we intervene in Rwanda and in China, following Tiannemen Square?
Finally, the West and America's mistakes.
1. It disgust me that we have bombed Afganistan to bits, or whats left of it, when this is one of the world's poorest nations and its people were innocent of all atrocities in September 11th. The hijackers were Saudi, after all.
2. Talk of extending this war to Somalia horrifies my. What is mine and your country doing, systematically targeting the world's poorest nations? Again, this only gives greater credence to bin Laden's opinion of the west as some sort of playground bully. Considering that these nations which 'support' terrorism (which merely means they allow terrorists on the their soil, not all of them 'support' them) are some of the world's poorest, isn't it obvious that this is often one of the only sources of income to these nations? The 'war on terrorism' would be served better if money was spent 'buying' these countries out of the need to support terrorism, rather than using the money to bomb them.
3. This point does merely focus on American foreign policy. The point above showed why all of the West must focus on why we (the west) are hated so much - the answer is our bullying tactics and our ignorance of the poverty that exists in many of the world's nations. America, however, is a particular target because of its policy in the Middle East. Until it takes a more neutral stance in affairs between Israel and Palestine, Muslims will continue to see the US as an enemy. Israel continues to sight its agreement with Palestine, in which all militancy would end - and uses this to justify its actions in destroying Palestinian homes and occupying Palestinian territory. However, Israel fails to mention that also in this agreement, Israel had agreed to withdraw from all Palestinian territory, which it has failed to do. Both sides are at fault here, its a viscious circle - but it doesn't help if the US only chooses to hear the Isreali side of the argument. I'd also like to mention that in the '70s Israel systematically killed five times as many Palestinian and Lebanese people as were killed in the Twin Towers. Also, Britain and America did nothing when Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and West Bank in the 1960s. Thus, the crisis in the Middle East owes much, again, to western foreign policy.
This is not a wholesale attack on the Us. I hope you notice that, for the most part, I refer to the West. Which, if I'm fair, really means Britain and the US. I think we are all being duped here, by lack of information and reactionist policies, by all our governments. And such is their stance, 'with us or against us', that they are trying to remain unaccountable. The most important issue in all of this is 'Why'. The answer is one that, perhaps, we'd rather not hear: we HAVE forgotten our moral obligations to the rest of the world. For this anger to be sated we must win over these people with aid, not increase their hate further with violence. When I say these people, I mean the normal Palestinains, Somalians, Lebanese and Afghans - not Al Quaeda. we need to give them a reason to turn their backs on the terrorist networks. At the moment we're just giving them greater reasons to join.
First, the prisoners in Cuba.
1. The outside world has yet to see any evidence that these people are guilty of anything.
2. George Bush cannot say that we ae fighting a war on terrorism, take prisoners and then say that they are not POW.
3. As one poster has already said, this is a war about western values. America, by ignoring the human rights of these prisoners is gifting Al Quaeda more fuel for their anti-America/West protests.
Secondly, the 'War on Terrorism'
1. It disgusts me that America talks about a war on terrorism when it suits the US, after years of allowing American citizens and corporations to fund terrorism in Nothern Ireland.
2. By making terrorism a legitimate reason for all out war on another country has given every nation in the world an excuse for launching attacks on its enemies. See India and Pakistan
3. In answer to Belle's point in another post about the justification of the treatment of these prisoners because of their atrocities in Afghanistan. I'm sorry, but this is incredibly naive. The Taleban regime was awful, and had an applaing human rights record. But lets not forget that it was the West that put them (and bin laden) there in the first place, as a counter to the Russian invasion. Also, I hate the way politicians (including mine here, in Britain) make out that the fall of the Taleban was in some way always planned. It wasn't. The Taleban was allowed to govern for around six, seven years - the West only intervened because of bin Laden. It had NOTHING to do with Taleban atrocities. If you belive it was some kind of moral crusade then why hasn't the West intervened in Chechnya and Zimbabwe. Why didn't we intervene in Rwanda and in China, following Tiannemen Square?
Finally, the West and America's mistakes.
1. It disgust me that we have bombed Afganistan to bits, or whats left of it, when this is one of the world's poorest nations and its people were innocent of all atrocities in September 11th. The hijackers were Saudi, after all.
2. Talk of extending this war to Somalia horrifies my. What is mine and your country doing, systematically targeting the world's poorest nations? Again, this only gives greater credence to bin Laden's opinion of the west as some sort of playground bully. Considering that these nations which 'support' terrorism (which merely means they allow terrorists on the their soil, not all of them 'support' them) are some of the world's poorest, isn't it obvious that this is often one of the only sources of income to these nations? The 'war on terrorism' would be served better if money was spent 'buying' these countries out of the need to support terrorism, rather than using the money to bomb them.
3. This point does merely focus on American foreign policy. The point above showed why all of the West must focus on why we (the west) are hated so much - the answer is our bullying tactics and our ignorance of the poverty that exists in many of the world's nations. America, however, is a particular target because of its policy in the Middle East. Until it takes a more neutral stance in affairs between Israel and Palestine, Muslims will continue to see the US as an enemy. Israel continues to sight its agreement with Palestine, in which all militancy would end - and uses this to justify its actions in destroying Palestinian homes and occupying Palestinian territory. However, Israel fails to mention that also in this agreement, Israel had agreed to withdraw from all Palestinian territory, which it has failed to do. Both sides are at fault here, its a viscious circle - but it doesn't help if the US only chooses to hear the Isreali side of the argument. I'd also like to mention that in the '70s Israel systematically killed five times as many Palestinian and Lebanese people as were killed in the Twin Towers. Also, Britain and America did nothing when Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and West Bank in the 1960s. Thus, the crisis in the Middle East owes much, again, to western foreign policy.
This is not a wholesale attack on the Us. I hope you notice that, for the most part, I refer to the West. Which, if I'm fair, really means Britain and the US. I think we are all being duped here, by lack of information and reactionist policies, by all our governments. And such is their stance, 'with us or against us', that they are trying to remain unaccountable. The most important issue in all of this is 'Why'. The answer is one that, perhaps, we'd rather not hear: we HAVE forgotten our moral obligations to the rest of the world. For this anger to be sated we must win over these people with aid, not increase their hate further with violence. When I say these people, I mean the normal Palestinains, Somalians, Lebanese and Afghans - not Al Quaeda. we need to give them a reason to turn their backs on the terrorist networks. At the moment we're just giving them greater reasons to join.
To be fair to him, however, his defence of the Koran was good and timely.
