Looking over the Sept. 11, 2001, hearings with a cynical eye andwatching the partisan bickering over Richard Clarke's allegations,one question seems to be on everyone's mind: Who's responsible forallowing the attacks to happen?
And I have to say, I've carefully looked over the evidence andstruggled to be as unbiased as possible only to arrive at a singleconclusion: Al-Qaeda.
Oh, you knew that, did you? That's painfully obvious, you say?Well, of course it is. Yet sometimes the most obvious truths arehidden right in front of our faces, obscured by our own pettydesires and biases.
Both the Bush and Clinton administrations (and even previouspresidents) along with the military and our intelligence agenciescould have made different choices that might have prevented theterrorist attacks. That's not an opinion, it's a fact. Thesearguments over who screwed up more only serve to unnecessarilydivide us further.
One of the advantages of not being a politician is the luxury ofbeing able to speak ideas that people do not want to hear but needto: Governments cannot prevent terrorist attacks. Oh, sure, theycan prevent some if they get lucky, but speaking practically, theycannot prevent the vast majority. If someone wants to killthemselves and tons of innocent people, it's hard for thegovernment to stop them. Isn't that common sense?
So how do you reduce terrorism? There's two parts, and we'realready doing the first by joining with other countries to go afterexisting terrorist cells. This is not enough, though, becausehordes of Middle Easterners, while not terrorists themselves,support bin Laden and suicide bombings. According to the WashingtonPost, a Pew survey found that bin Laden "was regarded favorably by65 percent of Pakistanis, 55 percent of Jordanians and 45 percentof Moroccans." Many in these countries also believe suicidebombings against Americans in Iraq to be justifiable: 70 percent inJordan, 66 percent in Morocco, 46 percent in Pakistan and 31percent in Turkey.
Even if we are successful in taking out terrorist cells, newgroups and terrorists will continue to replace them. Our fingersare stuck in a Chinese finger trap: The harder we fight, the morewe're going to be ensnared.
We cannot change the minds of those who are already in terroristgroups. They're lost. Think of this as an election - those whofavor bin Laden and suicide bombings are the swing voters. We caneither court them, or ignore them and let their hatred grow.
That in mind, one must understand another non-politicallypopular truth: We are not hated "because of our freedoms." In apoll conducted by the University of Maryland and ZogbyInternational, majorities in six Middle Eastern countries saidtheir attitudes toward the United States were shaped not by theirpersonal Arab values, but by U.S. foreign policy.
Of course, we cannot just radically change to please Arabs, butthe open hand needs to be extended to the Middle East, not thefist.
In the 2000 debates, then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush said,"If we're a humble nation, they'll respect us." He was right.
If our actions in the Middle East remain as they have for thepast 25 years, or worse, get more aggressive, we can expect asteady flow of death and new terrorists for generations.
Write to David at swimminginbrokenglass@yahoo.com
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