Of course, it's easy enough to blame the USA for everything wrong in the world today, and particularly to blame the current American president personally. Millions do so. And there is a certain amount of truth in the charge. But that is to oversimplify. Let's not do that.
So let's briefly consider why "9/11" happened. When a hugely rich nation such as the USA abuses its privileged position by bullying the rest of the world, year after year, decade after decade, it is only natural that great resentment should be caused. Not only that, but the USA's continued financial, moral and nuclear support for the Israeli state and its oppression of the displaced Palestinians inevitably meant that Islamic fanatics would be encouraged to wage holy war on the perceived source of their oppression. Pre "9/11", the American secret services were well aware of the threat posed by the Al-Quaida organisation after several minor international incidents; gross intelligence incompetence and criminally lax airline security allowed "9/11" to take place. But if it had not been then, it would have come later. The revenge of the oppressed against their oppressor was inevitable.
So there we are on the 12th September, with the Twin Towers in smoking ruins and with the Pentagon's walls breached. And with thousands of civilians murdered in the greatest terrorist act in history. The world's sympathy is with the USA and with New York in particular (with the exception of Palestine where the inhabitants were dancing with joy in the streets to celebrate the fact that the world's largest Jewish city in an enemy land had finally faced some of the horrors they had been putting up with for over fifty years). How is it that, in less than seven years, the Americans have squandered all the sympathy the world had on offer? How is it that millions of Europeans, most of whom felt horror and revulsion at a terrorist atrocity, are now violently anti-American? The answer is almost exclusively the stupidity and selfishness of George Bush and his cronies. It would be foolish to lay the blame entirely at Bush's door: all the others must share the responsibility: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Rove, Bolton and so on, ad nauseam. And America's craven European allies must also take some of the blame for their sycophantic trailing on the coat-tails of the criminal neocons.
The desire for vengeance, the sickening flag-waving and posturing, the savagery of the attack on Afghanistan, one of the very poorest countries in the whole world, the flexing of enormous military might to kill thousands of innocent Afghans, all this perhaps merely reflected redneck American public opinion. The Taliban were unlovely and few regretted their destruction. But with a total disregard for history (or more likely a total unawareness of history), the Americans and their conscripted allies ignored the fact that you cannot bomb a proud nation of warriors into submission. The Afghans have a history of being unconquerable; the British and Russians had tried it over the years. No luck. And America failed too. As a result, thousand upon thousand of new Islamic fanatics have been created. And the Taliban are on the way back, even as we look on the disaster that Afghanistan is now.
Then there's Iraq. Quite apart from the fact that Bush and the neocons lied about the alleged weapons of mass destruction which Saddam Hussain was alleged to possess, quite apart from the fact that Saddam's Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with the events of 9/11, the colossal stupidity in launching an attack on Iraq makes the mind boggle. What could it possibly have achieved? Make the world a safer place? Hardly. So what do we have now? We have an Iraq which is impoverished and heading inevitably towards civil war, we have a few thousand dead American and British soldiers, and billion upon billion of dollars thrown away on weapons. Oh yes, and let's not forget the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis, orphaned children, destroyed families. And let's not forget that the Arab world will never ever forgive the USA and that Americans are now hated by millions of people world-wide.
And let's not forget Israel. The root cause of the Islamic world's hatred lies in the poverty-stricken slums of Gaza, in the illegal Jewish settlements in historic Palestine, in the denial of Palestinian statehood. And there is only one reason why Israel can get away with murder: blind American support thanks to the hugely strong US-Israel lobby. Even now, the Israelis cannot stop themselves from continuing their folly of wall-building - surely the Berlin Wall's failure to prevent freedom could be observed from the Knesset?
So, let's go back to 12th September 2001. What should the Bush administration have done? It's easy enough to say what they should NOT have done (i.e. everything they did). Firstly, this was a time for talking (jaw-jaw, not war-war). The only way to deal with a determined group of people with what they perceive as a legitimate grievance is, unfortunately from the point of view of the coercionists, to talk. History has taught us that. Just think of Ireland: for hundreds of years, Britain tried to subdue Ireland by force of arms; Irish history is spattered with blood. Yet, the Troubles were effectively ended in a few short years when Major, Blair and Aherne finally spoke to the IRA and met some of their demands. Thus, the Arab world and the Islamist fanatics needed to have their grievance discussed.
In short, Bush should have brought pressure to bear on the Israelis to make peace. With a two-state solution in the Palestinian lands, the main source of anti-Americanism would have disappeared. There should have been no attack on Afghanistan, no invasion of Iraq, no commencement of unwinnable wars on terror, no rendition, no Guantanamo, no state torture by Americans. Instead of attacking Iraq (ostensibly to topple Saddam, but in reality to grab oil), the people of Iraq should have been helped by the USA by sanctions being lifted. If the reasons for the terrorists' hatred had been eliminated, there would have been a falling off in terrorist activity. And America might well have been seen as a force for good, for moderation and for internationalism in the world, instead of how she is now seen: a greedy, ignorant bully. And as a bonus, the US dollar would have been more stable and the world might well not be teetering on the edge of recession. If the billions spent on killing and maiming innocent women and children had been spent on aid, on fighting poverty and disease, America would be loved worldwide now. Instead, even her friends look on in dismay as she seeks to justify her occupation of sovereign states and suppression of accused people's rights to a trial.
For the last seven years, the beacon in the Statue of Liberty has been dimmed. Sadly, it may well have been extinguished permanantly (come unto me all you huddled masses and I will exploit and bomb you). And it need not have been so. How very sad.
Silver trophy winner
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