Actually there was a great documentary a while back on BBC 1, shown here in
Belgium, where it examined the motivations behind 9/11 and highlight why the
hatred for the Western nations and specifically the US had come from.

Unfortunately I can't remember the exact specifics of people and places, but
the general problem was that the US (and I'm sure other Western countries)
took a very simplistic approach to foreign policy.  I'm sorry I can't recall
the details, but it all seemed to stem from the US forcing a very unpopular
leader to take over in Saudi or Jordan (I think) as the US felt they could
manipulate him as he wished, but this angered deeply all the people in the
region.

In this documentary it then went on to show video tape of US soldiers in
Afghanistan showing Al-Qaida how to fire certain weapons it supplied, to
fight the nasty Russians.

I should point out that, although it may seem so from my recent mails, I
don't have a vendetta or dislike for the US, I'm sure my country, Britain,
is just a guilty of making mistakes.  The difference, I feel, is that the US
tends to take the moral high ground too often and that the general
population is very badly informed about the world and it's politics, so it
has a very biased view point about it's own country's actions.



-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Hirsch [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 30 May 2002 17:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: [HP3000-L] How To Stop Suicide Terrorists...


Richard Barker wrote:

> Hmmmm
>
> Is this meant to be a joke.
>
> So basically it's ok to murder a number of completely innocent people to
try
> and prevent someone becoming a suicide bomber.  Interesting idea, maybe we
> should try this in America.  Anyone who commits Murder should have there
> entire family executed.  Just imagine your Cousin who you haven't even
met,
> decided to get drunk and runs someone over, oh well, it's only fair that
you
> and your children should be executed as a result.
>
> How about examining why so many people feel so passionately against the
> west, to resort to killing themselves to kill others.
> Unfair and unjust actions of the west (specifically the US) only cause to
> motivate normal people to become terrorists.
>
> The American government is responsible for the training and supplying of
> arms to Iraq and Afghanistan, because at the time Iraq was fighting Iran
and
> Afghanistan was fighting Russia.  Maybe the US should examine it's own
> policies, before declaring a war on terrorism, a situation that it
created.

(1) The U.S. did NOT arm or train Iraq's military.
(2) The U.S. did arm and train fighters against the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden, but I fail to see how that made him
hate us.  Nor did the U.S. government train him to hijack airplanes.
(3) The reasons that bin Laden gives for attacking the U.S. are
   (a) the U.S. supports Israel and
   (b) the U.S. has non-Muslim "infidel" troops on Saudi Arabian territory.
(4) The reason so many people hate the U.S. is because we have an active
rather than isolationist foreign policy.  You will always make somebody mad
when you intervene in the world.  People blame you for things you do and
things you don't do.  Everything seems to be your fault when you're in
charge. In the short term an isolationist foreign policy would reduce enmity
against the U.S., but it has been tried before with dire long-term results.
(5) For example, why are U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia?  Because Iraq invaded
Kuwait.  Should we have done nothing or just joined U.N. sanctions against
Iraq (look at how successful those have been)?  By now Sadam Hussein would
have had nuclear weapons and have effective control over the entire Persian
Gulf.  I'm skeptical that that would be a better situation than what we have
now.


All you have said is "America did X; people hate America; therefore anytime
people attack America it's our own fault."  I find the chain of logic less
than compelling.

Ken Hirsch

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