Hi all, this letter says in much better words, and with
more facts than I could come up with what (In my opinion
too) is the cause of this war.
Katinka
-----------------------------------------
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT TERRORISM?
By Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret.*
*Dr. Robert M. Bowman directed all the "Star Wars" programs
under presidents Ford and Carter and flew 101 combat
missions in Vietnam. His Ph.D. is in Aeronautics and
Nuclear Engineering from Caltech. He is President of the
Institute for Space and Security Studies and Presiding
Archbishop of the United Catholic Church. Dr. Bowman can
be reached at RobertBowman@MiddleEast.Org.
"Mr. President, you did not tell the American people the
truth about why we are the targets of terrorism. You said
that we are the target because we stand for democracy,
freedom, and human rights in the world.
Baloney! We are the target of terrorist because we stand
for dictatorship, bondage, and human exploitation in the
world. We are the target of terrorists because we are
hated.
And we are hated because our government has done hateful
things."
"We are not hated because we practice democracy, freedom,
and human rights. We are hated because our government
denies
these things to people in third world countries whose
resources are coveted by our multinational corporations.
And
that hatred we have sown has come back to haunt us in the
form
of terrorism, and in the future, nuclear terrorism."
A FEW YEARS AGO, terrorists destroyed two U.S. embassies.
President Clinton retaliated against suspected facilities
of Osama bin Laden.
In his television address, the President told the American
people that we were the targets of terrorism because we
stood for democracy, freedom, and human rights in the
world.
On that occasion, I wrote: "Tell people the truth, Mr.
President ... about terrorism, not about poor Monica. If
your
lies about terrorism go unchallenged, then the terror war
you have unleashed will likely continue
until it destroys us.
"The threat of nuclear terrorism is closing in upon us.
Chemical terrorism is at hand, and biological terrorism is
a
future danger. None of our thousands of nuclear weapons can
protect us from these threats. These idols of plutonium,
titanium, and steel are impotent. Our worship of them for
over
five decades has not brought us security, only greater
danger. No 'Star Wars' system ... no matter how
technically
advanced, no matter how many trillions of dollars was
poured
into it ... can protect us from even a single terrorist
bomb. Not one weapon in our vast arsenal can shield us from
a
nuclear weapon
delivered in a sailboat or a Piper Cub or a suitcase or a
Ryder rental truck.
Not a penny of the 273 billion dollars a year we spend on
so-called defense can actually defend us against a
terrorist
bomb. Nothing in our enormous military establishment can
actually give us one whit of
security. That is a military fact.
"Mr. President, you did not tell the American people the
truth about why we are the targets of terrorism. You said
that we are the target because we stand for democracy,
freedom, and human rights in the world.
Baloney! We are the target of terrorists because we stand
for dictatorship, bondage, and human exploitation in the
world. We are the target of terrorists because we are
hated.
And we are hated because our government has done hateful
things.
"In how many countries have we deposed popularly elected
leaders and replaced them with puppet military dictators
who
were willing to sell out their own people to American
multinational corporations?
"We did it in Iran when we deposed Mossadegh because he
wanted to nationalize the oil industry. We replaced him
with
the Shah, and trained, armed, and paid his hated Savak
national guard, which enslaved and brutalized the people of
Iran. All to protect the financial interests of our oil
companies. Is it any
wonder there are people in Iran who hate us?
"We did it in Chile when we deposed Allende, democratically
elected by the people to introduce socialism. We replaced
him with the brutal right-wing military dictator, General
Pinochet. Chile has still not recovered.
"We did it in Vietnam when we thwarted democratic elections
in the South which would have united the country under Ho
Chi Minh. We replaced him with a series of ineffectual
puppet crooks who invited us to comein and slaughter their
people, and we did. (I flew 101 combat missions in that war
which you
properly opposed.)
"We did it in Iraq, where we killed a quarter of a million
civilians in a failed attempt to topple Saddam Hussein, and
where we have killed a million since then with our
sanctions. About half of these innocent
victims have been children under the age of five.
"And, of course, how many times have we done it in
Nicaragua and all the other banana republics of Latin
America? Time
after time we have ousted popular leaders who wanted the
riches of the land to be
shared by the people who worked it. We replaced them with
murderous tyrants who would sell out and
control their own people so that the wealth of the land
could be taken out by Domino Sugar, the United Fruit
Company,
Folgers, and Chiquita Banana.
"In country after country, our government has thwarted
democracy, stifled freedom, and trampled human rights.
That's
why we are hated around the world.
And that's why we are the target of terrorists.
"People in Canada enjoy better democracy, more freedom, and
greater human rights than we do. So do the people of Norway
and Sweden.
Have you heard of Canadian embassies being bombed? Or
Norwegian embassies?
Or Swedish embassies. No.
"We are not hated because we practice democracy, freedom,
and human rights.
We are hated because our government denies these things to
people in third world countries whose resources are coveted
by our multinational corporations. And that hatred we have
sown has come back to haunt us in the form of terrorism,
and in the future, nuclear terrorism.
"Once the truth about why the threat exists is understood,
the solution becomes obvious. We must change our
government's ways.
"Instead of sending our sons and daughters around the world
to kill Arabs so the oil companies can sell the oil under
their sand, we must send them to rebuild their
infrastructure, supply clean water, and feed
starving children.
"Instead of continuing to kill thousands of Iraqi children
every day with our sanctions, we must help them rebuild
their electric powerplants, their water treatment
facilities,
their hospitals; all the things we
destroyed in our war against them and prevented them from
rebuilding with our sanctions.
"Instead of seeking to be king of the hill, we must become
a responsible member of the family of nations. Instead of
stationing hundreds of thousands of troops around the world
to protect the financial
interests of our multinational corporations, we must bring
them home and expand the Peace Corps.
"Instead of training terrorists and death squads in the
techniques of torture and assassination, we must close the
School of the Americas (no matter what name they use).
Instead
of supporting military
dictatorships, we must support true democracy; the right of
the people to choose their own leaders. Instead of
supporting insurrection, destabilization, assassination,
and terror
around the world, we must abolish the CIA and give the
money to relief agencies.
"In short, we do good instead of evil. We become the good
guys, once again.
The threat of terrorism would vanish. That is the truth,
Mr. President. That is what the American people need to
hear.
We are good people. We only need to be told the truth and
given the vision. You can do it, Mr. President. Stop the
killing. Stop the justifying. Stop the retaliating. Put
people
first.
Tell them the truth."
Needless to say, he didn't ... and neither has George W.
Bush. Well, the seeds our policies have planted have borne
their bitter fruit. The World Trade Center is gone. The
Pentagon is damaged. And thousands
of Americans have died. Almost every TV pundit is crying
for massive military retaliation against whoever might have
done it (assumedly the same Osama bin Laden) and against
whoever harbors or aids theterrorists (most notably the
Taliban government of Afghanistan). Steve Dunleavy of the
New
York
Post screams "Kill the bastards! Train assassins, hire
mercenaries, put a couple of million bucks up for bounty
hunters to get them dead or alive, preferably dead. As for
cities
or countries that host these worms, bomb them into
basketball courts." It's tempting to agree. I have no
sympathy for
the psychopaths that killed thousands of our people. There
is no excuse for such acts. If I was recalled to active
duty, I would go in a heartbeat. At the same time, all my
military experience and knowledge tells me that retaliation
hasn't rid us of the problem in the past, and won't this
time.
By far the world's best anti-terrorist apparatus is
Israel's. Measured in military terms, it has been
phenomenally
successful. Yet Israel still suffers more attacks than all
other nations combined. If retaliation worked, Israelis
would
be the world's most secure people.
Only one thing has ever ended a terrorist campaign --
denying the terrorist organization the support of the
larger
community it represents. And the only way to do that is to
listen to and alleviate the legitimate
grievances of the people. If indeed Osama bin Laden was
behind the four hijackings and subsequent carnage, that
means
addressing the concerns of the Arabs and Muslims in general
and of the Palestinians in particular. It does NOT mean
abandoning Israel. But it may very well mean withdrawing
financial and military support until they abandon the
settlements in occupied territory and return to 1967
borders. It may
also mean allowing Arab countries to have leaders of their
own choosing, not hand-picked, CIA-installed dictators
willing to cooperate with Western oil companies.
Chester Gillings has said it very well: "How do we fight
back against bin Laden? The first thing we must ask
ourselves
is what is it we hope to achieve -- security or revenge?
The two are mutually exclusive; seek revenge and we WILL
reduce our security. If it is security we seek, then we
must
begin to answer the tough questions -- what are the
grievances of the Palestinians and the Arab world against
the United
States, and what is our real culpability for those
grievances? Where we find legitimate culpability,
we must be prepared to cure the grievance wherever
possible. Where we cannot find culpability or a cure, we
must
communicate honestly our positions directly to the Arab
people.
In short, our best course of action is to remove ourselves
as a combatant in the disputes of the region."
To kill bin Laden now would be to make him an eternal
martyr. Thousands would rise up to take his place. In
another
year, we would face another round of terrorism, probably
much
worse even than this one. Yet
there is another way.
In the short term, we must protect ourselves from those who
already hate us. This means increased security and better
intelligence. I proposed to members of Congress in March
that we should deny any funds for "Star Wars" until such
time as the Executive Branch could show that they are doing
all possible
research on the detection and interception of weapons of
mass destruction entering the country clandestinely (a far
greater threat than ballistic missiles). There are lots of
steps which can be taken to
increase security without detracting from civil rights.
But in the long term, we must change our policies to stop
causing the fear and hatred which creates new terrorists.
Becoming independent of foreign oil through conservation,
energy efficiency, production of energy from renewable
sources, and a transition to non-polluting transportation
will
allow us to adopt a more rational policy toward the Middle
East.
The vast majority of Arabs and Muslims are good, peaceful
people. But enough of them, in their desperation and anger
and fear, have turned first to Arafat and now to bin Laden
to relieve their misery. Remove the desperation, give them
some hope, and support for terrorism will evaporate. At
that
point bin
Laden will be forced to abandon terrorism (as has Arafat)
or be treated like a common criminal. Either way, he and
his
money cease to be a threat. We CAN have security ... or we
can have revenge. We cannot have both.
============================
*Dr. Robert M. Bowman directed all the "Star Wars" programs
under presidents Ford and Carter and flew 101 combat
missions in Vietnam. His Ph.D. is in Aeronautics and
Nuclear
Engineering from Caltech. He is President of the Institute
for
Space and Security Studies and Presiding Archbishop of the
United Catholic Church. Dr. Bowman can be reached at
RobertBowman@MiddleEast.Org.
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