Not THE Reason... But a Reason Nonetheless
Published by BG on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at 6:55 PM.Former Ron Paul Campaign Coordinator Declares Against Him - Latest Politics Blog
I have spent the early morning scanning the major political blogs, and news sites. It's unanimous. Ron Paul got slammed by Rudy Giuliani last night for suggesting that we - the United States of America - are to blame for the attacks on 9/11. He even had the audacity to cite Osama bin Laden.
Because, you know, god forbid we actually take the words of the guy who orchestrated the attacks into consideration when it comes time to assign the motivation for said attacks. Such audacity! Here, let me be audacious:
Online NewsHour: Al Qaeda's 1998 Fatwa
First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.
If some people have in the past argued about the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it. The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, but they are helpless.
Our foreign policy is a reason we were attacked on 9/11. Not the reason, necessarily, but a reason. Why are Republicans in denial about this simple fact?
Because it repudiates aggressive neoconservative foreign policy theory, that's why. There's a voting bloc in this country that's susceptible to fear and propaganda, and god forbid these people begin to think isolationism is a better policy than "sowing the seeds of democracy." It pays for Republicans to continue to focus on military solutions, which is good for business in the military-industrial complex and to secure both that voting bloc, as well as the active military personnel conditioned to believe Democrats are bad for their funding.
Well, and then there's the oil companies, where it pays to propagate puppet governments in an attempt to secure oil rights where none existed before.
Our "values" probably do enter into the equation, and are "a" reason that al Qaeda attacked. But to disregard entirely our foreign policy when it comes to al Qaeda's motivation is deluded at best, and ridiculous at worst.
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