Yes, the US has been involved in action in and around Islamic territories for years. And we do support Isreal financially.
However, the line about how our sanctions and depleted uranium have killed 1m children. Ummm... if you want me to believe a single word of your diatribe against US foriegn policy, please use the truth throughout. Depleted Uranium slugs have not been proven to do *anything* to *anyone* last I checked, except kill them when fired from a weapon.
The unqualified support for Isreal.... interesting. For the previous 10 years we have been using our financial support to Isreal to force them o make concession after concession to the PLO. When the PLO was offered 99% of what they wanted in the West Bank by Barak, who had been forced into the agreement by Clinton, they walked away from the bargining table.
Why? Because the state of Isreal would still exist. And that does not jibe with the Palestinian text books printed this year that do not show Isreal on their maps. The middle east is a very complex place, agreed. However, to try to paint our actions as tyrannical, is to ignore the reasons for the actions.
The sanctions against Iraq are harsh, agreed. But would they writer of this article prefer that we kill Saddam, and replace him with a puppet? Think that would of led to civil war within the country. And who would gather the blame for that war?
We are enforcing a no-fly zone in Irag, because if we don't, people whose crime is to be of a slightly different genetic background would be being bombed by Iraqi forces, but of course, we are the tyrants there.
Another jibe that is amusing... The fact that American made weapons are being used by the Isrealies to defend themselves against Palestinian's. Well, yeah, and? French made weapons have caused more casualties to Americans and British sailors than any other countries weaponry in my memory. (the exocet missle).
Do we go and bomb France? No, we respond to the person pulling the trigger.
The regimes that American dollars go to supporting in the middle east, are of course, those who most clearly do not hate us. What would the author want us to do? Allow those regimes (who we are always trying to westernize, if by market forces alone) to fall? And be replaced by people who resemble the Taliban? The agitators and agressors throughout the middle east are generally (and this *is* a generalization) those who are closer to the 'fundamentalism' of the Taliban.
We should therefore, allow the practice of female circumsision to continue? We should turn a blind eye to the enslavement of women? We should just say, 'oh golly, that's harsh" when the governments arrest and put people on trial for enjoying the books of J.R.R. Tolkien?
The Taliban has been given an inordanite amount of leeway within their own country, due to the US not wanting to trample on their soverignty. We have been trying to back out of middle east involvement where possible. And while Afghanistan is actually ruled by a horrifyingly brutal organization, it was at least stable. We turned a blind eye to their human rights violations, and we have sat by and let them shelter people who murder people, because of this stability.
The 'don't get between two fighting cats' is a nice simplification. Unfortunately, when both of those cats are integral to the world's economy, you gotta go grab the hose.
I am American, and I will say that the only people who do not grok the situation in the Middle East in this country are those who refuse to do any learning on their own.
The only solution to terrorism that I have ever heard discussed that really seems to have a chance is to go after the finaciers. Yes, if we kill bin Ladin by gun, bomb, or assassination, ten people who worshipped him as a hero will step up. If however, we remove bin ladin from Afghanistan, along with his money and assests. The ten people who stand up to strike down the West would be doing so with pistols, and without the structure his international army has.
I do not claim that my country is 'good' or 'pure'. As no country can truly make that claim. The actions of a country often break the moral code of the people within that country. However, as long as the reasons for our actions are for our defense first, the stability of the world second, and our prosperity third, I will support them.
Dwargon |
