It’s About More than Power

I’ve carried on a mostly cordial conversation with a co-worker over the past year regarding Iraq, the Bush administration and politics in general. Here’s an email I sent just yesterday:

Dear [___________],

Yesterday I mentioned how I consider any analysis that simply concludes that, It’s about power, or with, They simply want to get power, to be simplistic. Now, I don’t mean to belittle this approach; however, to simply say that it’s about power is to rely on a truism which, at face value, is difficult to refute. Moreover, not going beyond this level of analysis, It’s about power, leaves a lot unanswered and skirts the hard work of looking at the tangible issues that contribute to Islamic terrorism. Yes, it’s about power; but this is the most obvious and least complicated part of the equation. Again, there are tangible issues and policy concerns that can be pointed to which contribute to Islamic terrorism; thus, if the ultimate goal of an offensive war against Iraq was to “change the climate of the region,” and to diminish “the rise of Islamic terrorism,” it clearly would’ve been better to start by looking at those tangible issues and policies that contribute to terrorism in the region — rather than playing into their hands by initiating an offensive war. This is specially true if, as a lot of close observers (including war supporters, military personnel, intelligence analysts, historians and others) note that invading Iraq has contributed to the radicalization of a lot Muslims that would not have otherwise engaged in terrorists acts. Moreover, this same group of observers notes that invasion simply bolsters the Al Queda propaganda line that “infidels,” (namely the U.S.) are interested in “invading and occupying Muslim lands for its oil.” Finally, Bin Ladin out right ridicules the notion that the Bush administration is fighting for “freedom,” and Bin Ladin counters that he is the one fighting for “Islamic freedom and against the occupiers of Muslim land.” Now, ask yourself this question, in the region, who do you think is winning the propaganda war? Better yet, ask yourself, Who has more credibility in the Islamic world, Bush or Bin Ladin?

Lastly, note that Bin Ladin’s and Al Queda’s war is not against Westerners in general, but against very specific targets. For example, in a statement released by Al Queda ridiculing Bush’s rationale that Islamic terrorists hate our freedom, Bin Ladin noted that Al Queda does not hate our freedom and posed this question, Why is it that Sweden is not targeted and yet they enjoy as much freedom as Americans? His response, because Sweden does not occupy Muslim land nor support apostate regimes in the region. Clearly Al Queda is motivated by religious and ideological fervor. Yes, at surface level, it is about power; however, the fuel that drives Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists, and which fills their ranks with supporters, is composed of perceived grievances against U.S. policies in the region which some Muslims perceive as “unfair, oppressive, against their religion and against their national interests.” These grievances are difficult to address; however, they are rooted on tangible policies and causes that we, as a nation, can choose to address. Unfortunately, rather than looking at the situation in an analytical manner, a lot of our fellow citizens have given in to hyper-nationalism and, too, bought into the bumper sticker rationale for the war (i.e., freedom and all the other one line slogans).

[XX]

PS. You may be asking, What the fuck do you base this on? Well, on close obersvation of current events, but most recently, on these two books:

Imperial Hubris:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1574888625/
qid=1123789202/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/
104-1294730-7043913?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Through Our Enemies Eyes:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/
1574885537/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/
104-1294730-7043913?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

The author of both these books is a historian, specialist on the Middle East on Al Queda and Bin Ladin, and a 20 year veteran of the CIA.

I’ll also be reading this book, No God But God:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/
0812971892/ref=reg_hu-wl_item-added/
104-1294730-7043913?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance