Voices of America

" After 9/11, many Americans had no idea why there was so much anger and rage in the Middle East, especially against the United States. All their lives, Americans had been taught that foreign policy was for federal “experts” and, thus, they had chosen not to concern themselves with what their federal officials were doing to people abroad. Innocently believing that federal overseas personnel, including the CIA and the military, had been helping foreigners for decades, Americans had no reason to doubt the official U.S. pronouncement immediately after 9/11: “We are innocent. The terrorists hate us for our freedom and values. That’s why they have attacked us.” What Americans didn’t realize is that federal officials were being disingenuous when they made that pronouncement. U.S. officials knew full well that their decades-old U.S. interventionist policies in the Middle East were at the bottom of the volcanic rage that people bore in that part of the world. … … … The solution instead is for the American people to dismantle the U.S. government's overseas empire, requiring the federal government, especially the Pentagon, to withdraw from the Middle East (and the rest of the world) and also to liberate the American people to travel, trade, and interact freely with the people of the world (including both Vietnam and Cuba). Dismantling the U.S. overseas empire would not, of course, end conflicts abroad but it would ensure that the U.S. government could not make matters worse, both for foreigners and Americans, with its meddling overseas interventions. The federal government’s power would be limited to defending the United States from a foreign invasion, a virtually nonexistent threat at present, and to prosecuting criminal acts committed on American soil." Why They Hate Us [Emphasis added by me - mfi] Here's the second voice. I wonder if this man realises the growing fury amongst ordinary decent Americans at the way in which he and his kind have dragged America into the gutter and dragged their fellow countrymen into harm's way. Americans are rightly proud of what their forebears managed to build in America. I wonder if he realises how very nasty ordinary decent people can become when they discover that their trust has been betrayed and their children and livelihoods endangered. Probably not. "Many Americans simply wish the Arabs would go away; others wish to blow them away -- and wish to blow them away not because they see this step as inevitable and tragic, but because they rejoice at the prospect of getting them back for what they have done to us. Most normal Americans today just dont care any more about the Arabs and their welfare, or about their humiliation, or about their historical grievances, simply because all the images that come to us from their world horrify and appall us, including the disturbing images of Americans doing things that no normal American would ever dream of doing to other people back at home, if only because they would never be given the opportunity. This is how most normal Americans now feel, but they dare not express it in public. But make no mistake, this feeling will be expressed -- somehow, somewhere: a fact of which our leaders and the world must be made aware before it occurs." The War of Images Here's a third voice, not an American this time the similarity between this man and Lee Harris who wrote the article quoted above is chilling and utterly unsurprising. Both Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Lee Harris are your enemies. Of the two Harris and his kind are far more dangerous. Fortunately you can do something about Harris - treat him and his kind with the contempt they deserve. "The government in its summations and opening said that I was a terrorist. Yes, I am a terrorist and I am proud of it. And I support terrorism so long as it was against the United States Government and against Israel, because you are more than terrorists; you are the one who invented terrorism and using it every day. You are butchers, liars and hypocrites. (Ramzi Ahmed Yousef)" The Mind of a Terrorist You can do something about Ramzi Ahmed Yousef too treat him as what he is a murderer and a criminal, you can demand that American governments stop creating the conditions in which he thrives. And you can leave it to ordinary Muslims to root out and destroy his ilk. They're more outraged by their religion being defiled by murder than you can imagine. Stop the opression and the problems associated with it begin to be solved.