[Mb-civic] Re:The Terrorist's Rationale - NYT - July 9, 2005

[TSawyer456 at aol.com]

Re: NY Times Editorial -- The Terrorist's Rationale - July 9, 2005      
To the Editor:
 

I take particular issue with the final words (as well as with others)  of 
this editorial: "...to be flung into our fears is a way of discovering who  our 
adversaries are -- and that they are not ourselves."
 
Wrong. Our adversaries are indeed ourselves. And statements such as  the 
above aid and abet the perpetuation of our profound state of  denial.
 
We can, and will, continue to kill, bomb, and otherwise wage "war" on the  
terrorists, but there is nothing to "win," until we are willing to ask ourselves 
 why they have become terrorists. 
 
Your editorial oversimply suggests that their purpose is to  "puncture the 
veneer of civilization." Similarly, politicians tell us it's envy  of freedom, 
or of our prosperity, or it's just plain evil, etc.
 
I submit that these acts are Statements of Rage, 9/11 being the single  most 
dramatic example in the history of the world -- and they will continue  until 
we are willing to face their message: we are our enemy  as well as theirs. 
 
Playing catch-up to the British and French, our country has been  
systematically and self-righteously driving such people to these levels of anger  for 
roughly a century now, and in earnest over the past fifty years. Oil,  wars on 
drugs, supporting the military/industrial complex, whatever, we have  
consistently installed and/or supported regimes that grossly abuse their  own people. 
 
Their fury, irrational and over-the-top though it may be, will  continue to 
bite us on our backsides until we get the message. I fervently hope  that we do 
so before we are all standing there watching the nuclear or  biological dust 
settle, and still scratching our heads wondering  why. 
 
I am not optimistic.
 
Thomas  B. Sawyer
25301  Malibu Road
Malibu, CA 90265
310.456.8766
_www.ThomasBSawyer.com_ (http://www.thomasbsawyer.com/) 


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