Joe wrote: But at some point down the road--maybe in a month, maybe a year, who knows?--what we need to do (and I fear we won't do) is to take a good long look at ourselves and figure out why the U.S. has enemies in the world. Let me be clear--we are certainly not at fault or to blame in any way, shape or form for Tuesday. But after we have dealt with immediate events, we need to re-examine America's role in the world--politically, economically, militarily, and culturally, because they are all interrelated--and chart a future course. I agree wholeheartedly with Joe. I'm hoping to write an editorial for indymedia at some time soon, expressing concern over the brainless dichotomous thinking that's so prevalent whenever nationalism is involved. I've expressed exactly Joe's sentiment as well, and am appalled that some people are so incapable of critical thinking that they presume that any concerns over prior U.S. policy amount to support for mass murder of Americans or anyone else. Nobody who was killed in Tuesday's attacks "brought this on themselves", but anti-U.S. violence has deep roots in some short-sighted policies that began decades ago and, unfortunately, continue today. I don't believe that anyone -- American, Iraqi, Afghan, Israeli, whatever -- is born bloodthirsty. I do believe that prolonged injustice -- real or perceived -- makes people more susceptible to megalomaniac leaders who goad them into suicidal and homicidal acts. (Let's face it; if as it seems bin Laden is behind this, he's just brought the world's most efficient military machine down on the heads of the people he claims to fight for -- and it won't be just those who support him who will suffer.) The wars among our various tribes have always been a plague on our species. We may not ever be able to totally eradicate them -- but, please, let's be able to discuss them on planet-wide as well as on nationalist terms. I would find it unspeakably offensive for anyone, anywhere in the world, to justify the deaths of thousands of people in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. I find it equally unspeakable to justify the deaths of Iraqi civilians under sanctions. As at Auschwitz or Hiroshima or Pearl Harbor or Dresden or My Lai or Oklahoma City or Armenia or Bosnia or Columbine High School, none of the victims was at fault, nor had any say in the matter. Julie
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