[Bit]

Originally Posted by Bob

This isn't the basis of what Al-Qaeda and other fundamentalist Muslims are angry about. The root cause is ultimately Israel and our inital and ongoing support of that state.

......... This, of course, is the Reason That We Dare Not Name.

..........Of course, this is all terribly oversimplified.

No dear; it's just plain wrong. That incident was not the cause, but only an effect of almost a hundred years of US political and military interference in the Arab countries themselves.

WE, for instance, destroyed democracy in Iran in 1953. US, the United States of America, WE destroyed it... to please an oil company.

Originally Posted by smithsonianmag.com

Few Americans remembered that Iran had descended into dictatorship after the United States overthrew the most democratic government it had ever known. "Mr. President, do you think it was proper for the United States to restore the shah to the throne in 1953 against the popular will within Iran?" a reporter asked President Carter at a news conference during the hostage crisis. "That's ancient history," Carter replied.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people...#ixzz0egLX74Tu

Twenty-six years is hardly ancient in my personal history, but it exemplifies the US attitude toward the Middle East. Iran held elections and elected a democratic government; it governed; it chose to work in the interests of the Iranian people rather than the interests of the oil companies. WE destroyed it and put a hellacious dictator in charge of the country, one who supported foreign oil companies rather than his own people.

WE, the United States of America, proud upholder of freedom and democracy, WE "bombed Iran back to the stone age" in Ronald Reagan's words. WE have threatened to do so with other countries, notably Pakistan. http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2010...r-all-seasons/

WE, the United States of America, proud upholders of Truth and Justice, FABRICATED reports that Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction" and invaded a country which had not attacked us. http://www.globalpolicy.org/iraq/inv...n-of-iraq.html

Nobody bombed us for Guantanamo Bay, where we routinely tortured people without allowing them a fair trial.

We are the heinous bully of the modern world, and our favored targets are South America and the Middle East. We, the bringers of the American Way, have brought death and destruction all over the Middle East for sixty years.

Our being an ally of Israel is not the root cause of Arab hatred for us; our being an out-and-out warmongering enemy of Arab countries IS. Being an ally of Israel is only a last straw, not a primary cause.

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

I agree in part. Our ignorance of the Muslim world is disconcerting.

I think our ignorance of our own world is disconcerting!

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

[to AtLastHome]I think that will work for the people who aren't interested in attacking us. I think it might even dissuade some people from joining the camp of those who want to attack us. I don't think it will do *anything* for the people who already want to attack us.

Honesty and reparations might work. We don't know, since we're so arrogant we've never tried that approach... but then, bullies don't.

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

I would agree with you [AtLastHome] again although, honestly, I think that hatred of the West in the Muslim world has more to do with US foreign policy and with our rather libertine culture than with how individual Westerners treat individual Muslims in their midst.

I think it doesn't even have much to deal with our libertine culture... I think it has only to do with our complete untrustworthiness, our willingness to bring war to people who have not brought it to us. We are sooo quick to say "they started it!" like six year olds brawling over a bike, but the truth is WE started it, every time.

EVERY. Single. Damned. Time.

Originally Posted by Words

What I'm getting at is that the West is treating the symptoms of the disease called terrorism not the cause. Which of course, it will never do

We don't know this, Words. We honestly do NOT know with a guarantee that Western countries will forever continue their insane insistence on running the Middle East, and interfering with legitimate governments there.

There's always room for hope that some day those of us who speak up will be listened to.

There's always room for hope that some day US Foreign Policy will be determined by someone who does NOT need to fight bogus wars his father started.

There's always room for hope that some day the people of the US will pay attention to their own history.

I believe that when that happens, everything in the Middle East will change, including the pressures on Israel.