On TerrorismOn Terrorism

Mistress Bellona
June 23, 2002

OK, I'm just gonna' roll with these thoughts so bear with me.

I've been reading alot of stuff lately about September 11th and why it all happened. It seems to me that the majority of terrorism has its roots in the actions taken by the United States throughout the course of our history. Foreign policy for the past century or so has mainly consisted of "do what we say or be destroyed." The effects of this attitude are being felt now as a major blow to the ego of the American populous. We couldn't just get away with it forever.
My general view on foreign policy is that we have to put up with whatever form of goverment works in other countries. If a Middle Eastern nation wants to subject itself to the reign of a fundamentalist leader then let them! If they're happy with it, great! It's not our concern. We should focus on having foreign relations rather than policies. What's the difference? The difference is that by having policies you are applying a universal doctrine to all foreign nations. Foreign relations are more individual to the nation in question. Take the example above. If we want to peacefully coexist in this world with nations who aren't democratic then we need to treat the governments of those nations with respect and not push democracy on them as though it were their saving grace. And while I'm on the topic, we need to stop picking on the non-Judeochristian nations. Just because the predominant religion in a country is Islam that does not mean that the area is entirely populated with terrorists. The civilians we bombed in Afghanistan were just as innocent as the people killed in the World Trade Center.

There has been much speculation that the World Trade Center was chosen as the target of 9-11 because Al Qaeda wanted to make a statement against globalization. Did it ever occur to anyone that maybe they just aimed for the tallest building they could hit? Think about it. You couldn't really take out the Empire State Building with a 767 without first taking the wings off the plane by hitting some piddly offices. It's too closed-in.

So where does all this talk lead us? I say it leads us to adopt a more isolationist approach to our foreign relations. Let's take a giant step out of the Middle East. Withdraw some of the unconditional support we've given Israel (I was raised as a Jew and I'm saying this!) and get all our "peacekeeping troops" out of the area. Bring them all home. Then pull funding. If they don't want us there, they don't have to have us there but that also means they can't have our money to do whatever they want with. Once that's done, start an egg timer. When the general population of the region starts to die of malnutrition, preventable illnesses, simple infections, etc. you'll see just how fast Osama and his cohorts will be dragged out of whatever cave they're hiding in and handed over.

And one more thing. I'm sick of hearing about how we can't possibly do all this because the price of gasoline will skyrocket. Let me tell you something. We have plenty of oil right here under U.S. soil. And so what if gas hits a record high of $3 a gallon? What better incentive to save the environment of the premier capitalist nation than by making it more expensive to drive. Has anyone reading this ever seen the price of gasoline in Europe? Ever wonder why they like their little cars and motorcycles? For a gallon of gasoline it costs them about $5! We're the wealthiest, laziest nation in the world. Maybe a hike in gas prices will do some good. Maybe some people would even start... ~gasp~ ... dare I say it... WALKING! Maybe using those feet we evolved so hard for would help alleviate the obesity problem facing over 50% of the population. See how everything's connected?

OK, so maybe I got a little off topic but I think you all get the picture. If you want some further reading, my suggested list on the topic (which is very limited in scope) is below:

9-11 by Noam Chomsky or really anything by this author. He makes some great points and doesn't forget about the brutality with which the United States has treated the world.

Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace by Gore Vidal. I haven't read all of this book yet but it's damn good so far.