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July 27, 2005
Cause and effect
According to Tony Blair, when it comes to the terror attacks of 11th Sep 2001 and subsequent bombings in Bali, Madrid and London to name but three:
BBC - Blair: Iraq no excuse for terror
"We are not going to deal with this problem, with the roots as deep as they are, until we confront these people at every single level - and not just their methods but their ideas," he added.
"11 September for me was a wake up call. Do you know what I think the problem is? That a lot of the world woke up for a short time and then turned over and went back to sleep again."
Now why is it that so many people seem to think that 11th Sep 2001 was the moment when this all kicked off?
I have a history book here that contains many useful facts and dates, just picking a relevant selection at random:
28 June 1919 - British and French mandates in the Middle East established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. Note that the League was the brainchild of Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States.
4 February 1942 - In Egypt, the British forced King Farouk to appoint a pro-Allies cabinet. On February 4, the British drew up a tank battalion in front of the Abdin Palace and forcibly installed a Wafd ministry presumed to be pro-Allies in sympathy. The Egyptian government was thus reduced to puppet status, subordinated to the British in an openly humiliating way.
21 August 1953 - Shah Mohammed Reza returned to Iran on the wings of a coup engineered by the American CIA and organized by Kermit Roosevelt (Teddy Roosevelt's grandson who also had a hand in the Egyptian revolution of 1952). The Shah was flown back to Tehran aboard a CIA airplane.
23 January 1980 - President Carter in his State of the Union speech said, "Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force."
So certainly American (and British) involvement in the Middle East goes back more than 80 years before 11th September 2001.
Robert Pape, associate professor of political science at the University of Chicago, has looked into the underlying causes, hoping to find evidence of the perverted and poisonous misinterpretation of the religion of Islam that Tony Blair holds responsible.
Details of Pape's findings can be found in the article Poisonous Misinterpretations, which is well worth reading.
In summary, it would seem that the core motivating factor behind suicide bombers is a response to military occupation by a foreign power. For example, Iran has yet to be occupied and in spite of the Ayatollahs' criticisms of U.S. culture there have been no suicide attacks. Such attacks were unheard of in Iraq before 2003. Indeed Osama Bin Laden only got arsey with the U.S. after American forces arrived for Desert Storm in 1990.
Now as long as our leaders insist on a perversion of Islam as being the trigger for terrorist acts rather than admitting their own complicity, the war on terror will continue with neither side achieving victory. The problem is that such an acknowledgement of the reality of the situation is unlikely to occur, and so all parties continue to indulge in an ever escalating pissing contest, sacrificing innocent lives whilst watching to see who blinks first.
Such a campaign is seen as manna by many vested interests in the West. An unending war on terror provides numerous opportunities to sell arms and munitions to both sides. For the defence industries of the U.S. business is booming. Not to mention the opportunities that arise from being an occupying power.
At the end of the day, only by understanding the reality of the situation, getting to grips with the fundamental causes and saying enough is enough, can this futile conflict be brought to a close. And to those who believe that attempting to understand the other side is tantamount to condoning their actions, I'll leave you with a quote from the late Alec Nove (courtesy of Ken MacLeod):
To understand is not to forgive. It is simply better than the alternative, which is not to understand.
Posted by Clive on July 27, 2005 11:25 AM in the category Terror