Terrorism is about power. It is a strategy -- to hurt
enemies, thrill friends, inspire allies, and thus to
enhance power for political purposes,
including politico religious purposes. Middle Eastern and North African
terrorism has struck the U.S. directly
and repeatedly, and the motives vary only a little with circumstances. Yet
this terrorism is still misunderstood
and, it is usually quickly forgotten. Until now.
We have listened to the words of these
power-hungry enemies even less than we listen to the sound of the bombs. The
charter of Hamas is over a decade old.
It is filled with poetic passages, careful arguments, and cries for the blood
of anyone who supports Israel's
"partition of Palestine." Yet for all that, it is never read on our news shows or
studied by our university undergraduates.
When Osama Bin Laden published a fatwa in 1998 promising to drain American blood -- civilian and military -- for daring
to oppose Iraq's war on Kuwait, or support Israel, only a few words of the full text were ever aired. When Bin Laden
blew up two embassies, killing hundreds
of Africans and a few Americans, we settled for the trials of a few of his
underlings and then mentally we moved on. When the USS Cole was blown up by suicide attackers in Yemen, it was a
shock, briefly; we saw Bin Laden exult on camera but our formal investigation bogged down badly in murk and detail.
Perhaps until September 11, the lessons have been lost. Every time, some of us have refused to understand the
attacks. On the morning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, an American errorism expert with a Ph.D. told me
it couldn't be foreigners because such great damage would not suit their strategy. Terrorism has another effect:
Each time, like
the fools in our old children's books, we respond to the rock dropped into our group by turning
against each other. Some Americans damn our Israeli friends. Some warn all non-Arab Americans to beware their
hideous tendencies to racism. Commentators fuss even now over whether doing justice will merely "further the cycle
of violence," as if the devastation of one end of Manhattan can just be accepted with quiet dignity.
Let us not forget
what the face of this murderous bastard looks like. This is America's Most
Wanted CRIMINAL.
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Osama Bin Ladin - Wanted Dead or Alive!
