‘They’ Hate ‘Us’ for Our ‘Freedoms’
Posted by
Lew Rockwell on May 15, 2011
05:41 PM
Actually, as
Glenn Greenwald points out, it is our state, and our state’s clients,
that are hated.
Sunday, May 15, 2011 06:16 ET
They hate us for our freedoms
By
Glenn
Greenwald
(updated below - Update II)
The New York
Times
reports today:
- For the second time in three days, a night raid in eastern
Afghanistan by NATO forces resulted in the death of a child, setting off
protests on Saturday that turned violent and ended in the death of a
second boy. . . .
- "American forces did an operation and mistakenly killed a
fourth-grade student; he had gone to sleep in his field and had a shotgun
next to him," [the district's governor, Abdul Khalid]. said.
"People keep shotguns with them for hunting, not for any other
purposes," Mr. Khalid said.
- The boy, [15], was the son of an Afghan National Army soldier . . .
When morning came, an angry crowd gathered in Narra, the boy’s village,
and more than 200 people marched with his body to the district center.
Some of the men were armed and confronted the police, shouting
anti-American slogans . . .
- The police opened fire in an effort to push back the crowd to stop
its advance to the district center. A 14-year-old boy was killed, and at
least one other person was wounded, Mr. Khalid said. . . .
- On Thursday, a night raid by international forces in Nangahar
Province resulted in the death of a 12-year-old girl and her uncle, who
was a member of the Afghan National Police.
There's nothing much new to say here, but every now and then, it's
worth highlighting not only what we're doing, but what the results
are. Just imagine the accumulated hatred from having things like
this happen day after day, week after week, year after year, for a full
decade now, with no end in sight -- broadcast all over the region.
It's literally impossible to convey in words the level of bloodthirsty
fury and demands for vengeance that would arise if a foreign army were
inside the U.S. killing innocent American children even a handful of
times, let alone continuously for a full decade.
It's the perfect self-perpetuating cycle: (1) They hate us and want
to attack us because we're over there; therefore, (2) we have to stay and
proliferate ourselves because they hate us and want to attack us; (3) our
staying and proliferating ourselves makes them hate us and want to attack
us more; therefore, (4) we can never leave, because of how much they hate
us and want to attack us. The beauty of this War on Terror -- and,
as the last two weeks have demonstrated, War is the bipartisan consensus
for what we are and should be doing to address Terrorism -- is that it
forever sustains its own ostensible cause.
UPDATE: When President Obama explained to the nation (after the
fact) why he committed the armed forces to Libya,
he declared that the U.S. must not "stand idly by" in the
face of violent assaults on unarmed civilians.
Today:
- Violence erupted on Israel's borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on
Sunday, leaving at least eight dead and dozens wounded . . . Israeli
troops shot at protesters in three separate locations to prevent crowds
from crossing Israeli frontier lines in the deadliest such confrontation
in years.
In other words, Israeli troops opened fire on unarmed protesters on
three separate borders today (and
other
reports now suggest higher numbers of people shot). The
protesters were
reportedly attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory in
commemoration of the annual Palestinian protest of Israel, but by all
accounts were unarmed, and some were shot at on their side of their
border. Will the U.S. stand "idly by" while this happens,
or . . . issue a statement in ringing support of Israeli actions?
Sadly, there is no plausible third alternative, and that, too, may shed
some light on "why they hate us."
UPDATE II: For a succinct exhibit of the actual meaning of Freedom
when exploited to justify wars,
see
here.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/05/15/afghanistan/index.html
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