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We can't see why we are hated . [Sep. 17th, 2001|01:28 pm]
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Yet another article, brought to my attention by [info]kostika, which should be required reading material for the many Americans who don't understand why we are so despised:

They Can't see Why they are Hated
By Seumas Milne
Published Thursday September 13, 2001 in The Guardian

Nearly two days after the horrific suicide attacks on civilian workers in New York and Washington, it has become painfully clear that most Americans simply don't get it. From the president to passersby on the streets, the message seems to be the same: this is an inexplicable assault on freedom and democracy, which must be answered with overwhelming force - just as soon as someone can construct a credible account of who was actually responsible.

Shock, rage and grief there has been aplenty. But any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process - or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries, but across the developing world - seems almost entirely absent. Perhaps it is too much to hope that, as rescue workers struggle to pull firefighters from the rubble, any but a small minority might make the connection between what has been visited upon them and what their government has visited upon large parts of the world.

But make that connection they must, if such tragedies are not to be repeated, potentially with even more devastating consequences. US political leaders are doing their people no favours by reinforcing popular ignorance with self-referential rhetoric. And the echoing chorus of Tony Blair, whose determination to bind Britain ever closer to US foreign policy ratchets up the threat to our own cities, will only fuel anti-western sentiment. So will calls for the defence of "civilisation", with its overtones of Samuel Huntington's poisonous theories of post-cold war confrontation between the west and Islam, heightening perceptions of racism and hypocrisy.

As Mahatma Gandhi famously remarked when asked his opinion of western civilisation, it would be a good idea. Since George Bush's father inaugurated his new world order a decade ago, the US, supported by its British ally, bestrides the world like a colossus. Unconstrained by any superpower rival or system of global governance, the US giant has rewritten the global financial and trading system in its own interest; ripped up a string of treaties it finds inconvenient; sent troops to every corner of the globe; bombed Afghanistan, Sudan, Yugoslavia and Iraq without troubling the United Nations; maintained a string of murderous embargos against recalcitrant regimes; and recklessly thrown its weight behind Israel's 34-year illegal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the Palestinian intifada rages.

If, as yesterday's Wall Street Journal insisted, the east coast carnage was the fruit of the Clinton administration's Munich-like appeasement of the Palestinians, the mind boggles as to what US Republicans imagine to be a Churchillian response.

It is this record of unabashed national egotism and arrogance that drives anti-Americanism among swaths of the world's population, for whom there is little democracy in the current distribution of global wealth and power. If it turns out that Tuesday's attacks were the work of Osama bin Laden's supporters, the sense that the Americans are once again reaping a dragons' teeth harvest they themselves sowed will be overwhelming.

It was the Americans, after all, who poured resources into the 1980s war against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul, at a time when girls could go to school and women to work. Bin Laden and his mojahedin were armed and trained by the CIA and MI6, as Afghanistan was turned into a wasteland and its communist leader Najibullah left hanging from a Kabul lamp post with his genitals stuffed in his mouth.

But by then Bin Laden had turned against his American sponsors, while US-sponsored Pakistani intelligence had spawned the grotesque Taliban now protecting him. To punish its wayward Afghan offspring, the US subsequently forced through a sanctions regime which has helped push 4m to the brink of starvation, according to the latest UN figures, while Afghan refugees fan out across the world.

All this must doubtless seem remote to Americans desperately searching the debris of what is expected to be the largest-ever massacre on US soil - as must the killings of yet more Palestinians in the West Bank yesterday, or even the 2m estimated to have died in Congo's wars since the overthrow of the US-backed Mobutu regime. "What could some political thing have to do with blowing up office buildings during working hours?" one bewildered New Yorker asked yesterday.

Already, the Bush administration is assembling an international coalition for an Israeli-style war against terrorism, as if such counter-productive acts of outrage had an existence separate from the social conditions out of which they arise. But for every "terror network" that is rooted out, another will emerge - until the injustices and inequalities that produce them are addressed.

Original source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,551036,00.html
LinkReply

Comments:
[User Picture]From: [info]kostika
2001-09-17 11:11 am (UTC)

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Thank you for posting the article. Everyone really should read that. I've talked to too many people who don't get it. Maybe this'll help.
[User Picture]From: [info]skipbreakfast
2001-09-18 04:33 am (UTC)

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" 'What could some political thing have to do with blowing up office buildings during working hours?' one bewildered New Yorker asked yesterday."

Ignorance such as that example are the prime reason why we have allowed our current circumstances to develop. There are far too many Americans who wave the flag of apathy. Sure, they wave the American flag now, but they don't know why. It's fucking pathetic.
[User Picture]From: [info]corpusdei
2001-09-24 11:29 am (UTC)

playing the advocate's devil

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Ah, while I won't, and can't argue the reasons why America is generally considered a bully instead of a big brother, I will, however, bring up the point that we, as a nation and a society, have to responsibility to perpetuate and protect our way of life. As this leads inevitably to war and strife, we find it necessary to guarantee our national supremacy. This war is not about retribution for those dead, though americans may choose to think so. This war is about maintaining our global polotical, economic and military power in the face of a group who chose to slap us in the face and tell us we didn't have the balls to rule anymore...
[User Picture]From: [info]nebris
2001-09-28 03:42 am (UTC)

Well, Not Entirely

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While the facts in Mr?/Ms? Milne's article are basically true, there is a very large omission. Captain Atta and his Jolly Band of Air Pirates come from a part of the world where apx. 5400 girls between 8 and 13 years old are genitally mutilated EVER DAY. That's about 2,000,000 per year. In Egypt, Atta's homeland, they take a 'civilized' approach. A female relative, the mother or aunt, will bring the girl to a gynocologist's office. She'll get a 'local' while the good doctor uses nice clean surgical instruments to slice off the girl's clitorus and labia, which is then sewn up, leaving room only to pee. When she is married, her husband will tear her open with his penis on thier wedding night. Many men will not marry a woman who has not been 'fixed' in this fashion. In the poorer counties and regions, the 'operation' is performed by a female relative with broken glass or sharpened stone. Many of those girls bleed to death or suffer severe infection. These are men who believe that women are by nature all whores. So that makes America an "Empire of Whores". All the political reform in the world will not change this. In fact, 'sharing our wealth' with them will make it worse, because it will "turn all their women into whores forever". The Judeo-Christlamic Father/God Cults are all based on the 'Diafication' of Male Ego. I believe Jerry Falwell made that pretty clear. "Well", you say, "How do we solve the problem?" ( It helps to believe in Reincarnation. Me, I've done a bunch of 'regressions', so I'm fairly certain about it.) The Solution is the 'out breeding of the Male'. Not the extermination of men, just a slow, steady reduction of the birth of male children. (There are too freakinny of us, anyway, which is another cause of the Twin Towers attack.) Plus, Women still have a large amount of 'Reclaiming of the Masculine' to do. A lot of women are still 'slaves' i.e. "Good Girls". "How will the Race reproduce?" you ask, "The sperm banks won't last forever." I have great faith in genetic engineering. We are actually very close to being able to use one egg to furtilize another egg, which would also maintain genetic diversity. Ah, "World of Lesbians, Without End, Forever and Ever, Goddess Bless." ;) Come on, guys, get with the program. (Any guy don't 'munch box' deserves to die, anyhow. Ain't that right, girls?) I suppose I'm living in a fool's paradise if I think this will come about peacefully. Ladies, you are going to have to "Put on your Bitch Face". (Gorgons, anyone?) Because, if you don't, my 'fellow men' are going fuck it all up royally. What I'm I saying, we already have. Well, girls, it's not like you haven't cleaned up after us before, is it? See you on The Wheel, kids. Later/Blessings, Nebris };->
[User Picture]From: [info]nebris
2001-09-28 03:52 am (UTC)

Re: Well, Not Entirely

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I meant to say "too freaking many of us". If any one wants to hear, I'll tell them about the "Country Rat/City Rat" population experiments for the early 60's. N.
[User Picture]From: [info]nebris
2001-09-29 06:14 am (UTC)

Re: Well, Not Entirely

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I just re-read the above after asking "kostika" to look at it. The 'jocular' tone is my way of distancing myself from the horror of all of it. "Whisting past the graveyard", as it were. But, I am serious about my 'proposition'. I have thought long and hard about this, looked at dozens of 'constructs'. This is the only one I can't pick apart. At ever turn, some guy's dick is upsetting the applecart. (Sorry, it comes from pitching too many scripts) And if I don't laugh, I'll slit my wrists.
[User Picture]From: [info]corpusdei
2001-10-01 07:17 am (UTC)

Why you need to listen to the girlfriend.

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*chuckles* From a humerous point of view, it can be well agreed that a lot of our world problems basicly boil down to a bunch of males sitting around a campfire arguing over who's god the biggist penis. War over territory, supplies, slaves or wealth, these all come into the picture later, but a lot of it distills down to who wants to be Testicules, High God of Testosterone. And I'm all for increasing the female to male ratio. Chlorinate the gene pool. Course, I've got good genes, I'm a young, strong, healthy, strapping lad who...*the following three and a half hours of vanity have been removed in the interest of preventing nauseua in the audience*...and that's why you should vote for me for Mayor. Thank you, and goodnight.

From a more scientific standpoint, it's interesting to note that by moving from a matriarchal society to a patriarchal one, we have managed to oppose the general natural order of things. With only a few exceptions, mainly in higher order primates, all social animals exist in a matriarchal structure. Male birds must don the plumage, dance the intricate dance, and build the nest to impress the female. Bees and termites provide and protect the female, she is the most important member of the nest. We force women to dance the dance, conform to an unrealistic image of beauty, subject themselves to insanely painful and rediculous procedures in order to win male favor. (Don't believe me, guys? You try waxing your bikini line.) In those few human societies that remain matriarchal, you see more familiel unity and loyalty as well as a peaceful attitude that rivals modern society. Face it, guys, we may have the penis, but they've generally got a much more intuitive grasp on social structure. Now all we've got to do is pull the testosterone out of our ears and listen every once in awhile.
[User Picture]From: [info]nebris
2001-10-06 03:48 pm (UTC)

Re: Why you need to listen to the girlfriend.

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Well, said, sir. I'll come back and 'beat the drum' later. But I did want to acknowledge your words before a whole freakn' week past. Check my page and I'll...well, you know: "I'll show you mine..." Meantime, I have to rush off to a Dark Pagan Web Site and tell the Crypto-Fluffies about my Thea-ology for a Panthestic Goddess Montheism and how it is the best 'instrument of battle' in The War Against The Judeo-Christlamic Father/GodCults. (Is that satire? I thought Irony was officially dead, by Excutive Order.) "I never lie, and I'm always right." ;) The scary thing is, I'm serious. I use Irony as a self critisiism technique. If it can be comfortably 'Ironised', it needs work. My main target these days is not those poor dumb bastards in Kandahar, but the Cabal at 1600 Pennsilvania and the Playboy Taliban in Riyad. Later/Blessings, Nebris };->
[User Picture]From: [info]vaysha
2001-10-23 10:12 am (UTC)

Re: Well, Not Entirely

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That was a great article, Ah the day when I am queen of everythign rather than just princess of quite a lot *wink.
[User Picture]From: [info]nebris
2001-10-23 11:50 am (UTC)

And Groucho replies...

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....Which is just down the road from Camelot. *waggles eyebrows, rolls eyes* Thanx, Miz V. Or, in this context, diffinitely Your V-Ness. *doffs hat, bows elegantly* Blsngs, Nebris };->
[User Picture]From: [info]vaysha
2001-10-23 12:38 pm (UTC)

Re: And Groucho replies...

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You, my friend, are most welcome:)
[User Picture]From: [info]bitchkitty
2001-10-23 01:09 pm (UTC)

Re: And Groucho replies...

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you guys are so dern cute!! ;)
[User Picture]From: [info]bitchkitty
2001-10-08 08:22 pm (UTC)

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"I thought Irony was officially dead, by Excutive Order"

*chuckles* good one ;) I've been saying that a lot lately.

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