In a message dated 10/22/01 12:47:57 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: <snip most of letter>
>Finally, we have been supporting Israel since its inception, even though >it is a state born of terrorist violence, and even though its abuses have >been many. some thoughts First, let me get this out of my system: I agree with the points that the letter-writer made, except for the point about Israel. So getting 1/3 of your population going up in smoke with the whole world (few exceptions) not giving a damn is not supposed to motivate the Jews to *do* something? Excuse me, why does all this talk of "root causes" never extend to the Jews? After the Holocaust they were the most victimized people on Earth, can you really blame them for turning to terrorism? Not to excuse Israel for its human rights abuses, but if we're going to talk "root causes" of things, I think having 6,000,000 people going up in smoke (when they weren't shot and dumped in mass graves) with the whole rest of the world basically saying 'so what' is a damned good explanation for terrorism. There is an element of anti-Semitism in this "root cause" commentary that really upsets me. Why is it that we castigate the US for its human rights abuses and foreign policy errors (of which there are many) and ignore the extensive list of atrocities committed against the Jews (of which there are so many that it's hard to even list them all). It's easy to blame the victim. If these "root cause" proponents would admit that's part of what they are doing, I would respect them more. Blaming the victim makes the world seem less frightening, because then you can say 'but they deserved it'. It was not foreign policy moguls who were killed, it was just plain ordinary people. But if they are guilty by virtue of being American, then they got what was coming to them anyway. How different is that from saying 'the stupid bitch deserved what she got'? In fact, something I saw on another listserv explicitly compared America to a woman who wore a miniskirt on a deserted street late at night, and got brutally raped and beaten. The point being, she needed to learn her lesson about revealing clothing, but when she was in the emergency room getting treated for her rape it was too soon to start lecturing. In other words, Americans won't listen to criticism while feelings are so raw. Hindsight is 20/20. Yes, the US has screwed up in many ways. And your point is? If we are isolationist, we are damned for that (ie abandoning Afghanistan). If we meddle, we are damned for that too. And besides which, a lot of our decisions were based on fear of Russia, and at least there you have to admit that we did not have the nuclear war that everyone feared. So there at least, Russia and the US did something right. OK, that all said - Kate's letter writer is absolutely right about US errors and I think there needs to be a serious discussion of what US foreign policy should be. Do we meddle or not? Are we the world's policeman? To what extent do we rescue people in trouble? How much are we willing to pay and how many lives do we risk? These questions don't have easy answers, but I think we need to discuss. And, no matter what anyone says, we can't do everything right. If we set our standards high, we will screw it up a significant percentage of the time because we are imperfect human beings. We have to live with that. what bothers me most about this commentary is the idea that if the US would just stop fucking up, tragedies wouldn't happen. We are human and tragedies happen. It is not something we can control. Nor do we have a crystal ball. and what's this about america covering up "its women"? am I not equally an American citizen? (I will not get started, but this implies women are a possession. Since when do you hear about America and "its men"?) mary
