Hi. Here's a letter to the Editor, in today's LA Times.
"The disruption of this major terrorist plot by the British stands in
startling contrast to our inept counterterrorism efforts. Five years
after 9/11, only a few, small groups with wild dreams and no ability
to carry them out have been identified."
"We have yet to find either Osame bin Laden or the anthrax killer.
Our forces have mostly abandoned the Afghanistan/Pakistan sector
where the plans are hatched and have become bogged down in Iraq,
where they are not."
"Sould a significant terror attack take place here, we have Katrina to
serve as a model for our response. Have we become safer because of
9/11?"
Arthur Yeager, Edison, N.J.
I'd add that almost none of the previous arrests in Britain have even
brought charges, according to the Brit experts Juan Gonzales and Amy
Goodman interviewed on today's Democracy Now! Of course, this
could be the real thing, but that doesn't much matter to the people
who use these incidents to arouse fear and hatred of arabs and muslims.
I wanted to watch tennis about an hour ago, turned on the tv to a promo
for a series on Bin Laden which begins on CNN, tonight-I think, and called
"Know Your Terrorist" and showing a field of muslim men in white praying.
Think about that being prepared for just such an occasion.
Here's some substance about how humans come to such terrible actions.
Ed
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060814/khalidi
The Nation (August 14, 2006 issue)
Anger in the Arab World
by Rashid I. Khalidi
In what passes for analysis of the war involving Israel, Lebanon and
Palestine in US and Israeli government circles, in the well-oiled PR machine
that shills for them, and in much of the US media, we are told about a
struggle against terrorism by a state under siege. The basic argument is
that Israel is "responding to terrorist violence," and that the only real
question is, How soon will Israeli force, backed by American determination,
prevail? But this scenario has little to do with reality in the Middle East.
There will be no "destruction" of Hezbollah, and no "uprooting" of its
infrastructure or that of Hamas, whatever the results of Israel's siege of
Gaza and its merciless attacks against Lebanon. The rhetoric about
"terrorism" has mesmerized those who parrot it, blinding them to the fact
that Hezbollah and Hamas are deeply rooted popular movements that have
developed as a response to occupation--of the West Bank and Gaza for nearly
forty years, and of southern Lebanon from 1978 to 2000. Whatever one might
say about the two movements' callousness in targeting civilians (a subject
on which Israel's defenders are hardly in a position to preach), both have
won impressive victories in elections and have provided social services and
protection to their people.
The Lebanese government will not do Israel's bidding in south Lebanon.
The deep divisions in Lebanon over Hezbollah's military presence before
Israel's blitz began are rapidly disappearing. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad
Siniora, Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri, Saad Hariri (son of assassinated
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri), Gen. Michel Aoun, President Émile Lahoud and
other major leaders of the country of all sects and all political
persuasions and Lebanese public opinion have been horrified at Israel's
ravaging of their country's infrastructure and its defenseless civilian
population, yet again. Few indeed will be the Lebanese voices to support the
Israeli-US position as this savaging of Lebanon goes on--and just because it
is largely absent from US television does not mean that it is invisible to
the rest of the world.
Iran and Syria, Hezbollah's principal allies, will not come out
of this conflict weaker, even if it develops into a regional war involving
either. The United States has been threatening both for several years, since
9/11 released the cowboy in George W. Bush. Their positions have been
strengthened by the bulldozer-like obtuseness of US policy on Hamas and
Hezbollah, never more so than since Israel fell into Hezbollah's trap and
overreacted to the capture of two of its soldiers and the wounding of
several of its civilians in mid-July. A war with either of these countries,
or a serious effort to overthrow either of their unsavory regimes, will in
the end weaken either Israel or the United States or both, should they
escalate this dangerous international crisis.
The pro-American Arab regimes that initially foolishly aligned
themselves with the United States and Israel over the Lebanese crisis have
shown their regret by backpedaling as fast as they can. Public opinion in
their countries is massively against their position (Al Jazeera's viewership
is way up; that of the Saudi-run Al Arabiya is way down) and is making
itself felt. Fortunately for the Bush Administration and Israel, none of
these countries have a functioning democracy. The net result of this crisis,
however it comes out, will be a further weakening of these regimes. They may
temporarily increase their dependence on the United States. But they are
weaker than they were before this crisis began, and their oppositions,
whether in Cairo, Amman or Riyadh, are stronger.
Israel's regional power decreases when it escalates the use of
force against Palestinians and Lebanese. This has been the case for the last
couple of decades--the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the first intifada of
1987-90 and Hezbollah's defeat of Israel in south Lebanon in the years
leading up to 2000 are all examples--and it will happen again. The United
States has discovered the same thing (at least the majority of the
population in the reality-based community, not in the never-never land of
the crazies who run our Middle East policy), as the use of massive force in
Iraq has produced a similarly massive weakening of the US position
throughout the Middle East. The United States has experienced a decline in
its power and influence in the region unparalleled in the post-World War II
era.
Much depends on whether an Israeli, American or Israeli-American
war with Syria and, much more serious, Iran can be avoided. If escalation of
what is already a major war in Gaza and Lebanon can be prevented, the
conflict's regional effects will be mitigated. Much depends on how fast
European public opinion, turning rapidly, expresses its revulsion at what is
happening in Lebanon. Tales of the massive destruction and civilian
casualties are being carried home by tens of thousands of French, British,
Italian and German evacuees, many of them dual nationals, appearing on
French and British TV talking about the atrocities they have seen. Much also
depends on how adventurous Iran and Syria choose to be, how much punishment
Hezbollah can take and still keep fighting, and how wise the Palestinians
are in dealing with their difficult internal situation. And much depends on
how far the man in the White House will go with his instincts. If he reins
in his darker impulses and those of the Israeli general staff, which is
running the show on that end of the alliance, the current slide into the
abyss can yet be halted. If not, the Middle East and the United States are
headed for catastrophe.
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