Its just not that easy
And for all the non Americans who bitch at us and say "keep your nose out of other people's business...." We have...until Qaeda made this our business. I thought that was obvious. So what's the issue here? We're butting in right now because we were directly attacked.
America has been in "other people's business" for quite a while.
Guatemala, Iraq, Afghanistan, Laos, Panama, ... I could go on and on and on and on.
Part of the reason why the Third world is in such disarray is directly caused by the CIA's "war on communism".
What do you think might become of the world in the aftermath of our "war on terrorism"?
Some of Al-Queda's main issues with us are our support for Israel and their treatment of the Palestinians, our military bases in Saudi Arabia and our "friendship" with the Saudi "government", our support for the authoritarian (non-democratic) regimes of the Middle East, the sanctions we (with the help of the UN) imposed upon the Iraqi people (i say that because you know damn well Saddam wasn't suffering from the sanctions). Again, i could go on and on, but this is just what Al-Queda doesn't like about Americans. We are not their only target, just their best media outlet. They hate "the West", not just Americans.
While I in no way support Al-Queda or their methods, i have a very hard time saying that they attacked us out of nowhere and without reason.
Israel has killed more Palestinians than Al-Queda has Americans by a seriously long shot. At times the Israeli-to-Palestinian death tolls were about 7 to 1 (in Israelis favor of course). The Palestinian people live in conditions on par with the Nazi camps in WW2 (i know this for a fact, i have been to Aushwitz and my wife has visited Palestinian Refugee camps in Gaza), and face daily intimidation from Israeli Police not unlike Jews and Homosexuals in Hitler's Europe.
Now the Palestinians reaction to all this is not okay either. But you need to stop and think that they have been under oppressive rule for longer even than Israel has been around. Prior to Israel coming in in '48, the British were there. When the first Israelis came to Palestine, the Palestinian people had been already beaten down and stripped of their weapons by the British.
These are the desperate acts of desperate people, who have lived under someone's thumb for several generations now. If all you ever knew was a refugee camp, what value would you place on life?
Why are you ranting about Israel and Palestine you ask?
Well because a little know fact is that the United States is the largest user/abuser of the UN Security Council Permanent Member Veto. In the last 30 years the US has vetoed approx. 70 resolutions calling for condemnation of the Israeli government. (France aint got nuttin on us baby).
Not to mention the fact that we regularly supply the Israeli army with all sorts of weapons and bulldozers. The same bulldozers that are used by religious extremists (and here i mean the Israeli settlers) to tear down the houses of terrorists (and here i mean old woman and children).
But wait,... Israel is not the only killer of Arabs we supply weapons to.
Saddam Hussein, you may have heard of him. The CIA was largely responsible for the installation of the Ba'ath party as the ruling regime in Iraq (this was all done because the current regime at the time was Communist). This is no conspiracy theory either, but a matter of public record.
Saddam, as George Bush is fond of telling us, gassed his own people. Over 100,000 Kurds and Shia Muslims was the number i heard. And funny thing about it, we sold him the gas (again not conspiracy but public record). Of course we sold it to him so he could win the Iran-Iraq war (because at the time we liked him better than Iran). The US government's involvement with Iraq and Saddam go way way back some 20-30 years, and is only recently turned adversarial.
Okay, now on to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia's treatment of women makes what the Taliban did look like child's play. There are women in Saudi Arabia that have never (and i mean NEVER) left their homes, only ever seeing the outside through a window, and even then usually just seeing their own yards and not much else. It is not uncommon for a father to kill (usually by strangulation) his own daughter or wife if they do something that he deems wrong. The human rights violations committed daily in Saudi Arabia would make you sick to your stomach.
Their government is about as far away from Democracy as you could go, and regularly supports terrorism of all kinds.
Almost all of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, which may come as surprise to the 44% of American, who when asked what country the hijackers came from said Iraq.
But yet Saudi Arabia is the US's closest ally in the region. We have several large military bases in the country and used positions in Saudi Arabia to launch many offensives into Iraq. The ties between American Corporations and the Saudis run very deep. Up to and including the current and former President Bush and the Bin Laden family.
Salem bin Laden, Osama?s older brother, was an investor in Arbusto Energy. (the Texas oil company started by George W. Bush).Ă‚Â
Bush the elder's current company, The Carlyle Group, counts the Bin Laden family as a major investor. So much so that on the morning of 9/11 George Sr. could have been found in the Ritz-Carlton in Washington D.C with representatives of the Bin Laden family. Don't believe me, here's the link -
http://www.redherring.com/vc/2002/0111/947.html
What does this all have to do with the question "What defines a Terrorist?".
Well, the way i look at it, you can't.
Terrorism is just another label placed upon the "losers" by the "winners" and vice versa.
According to King George (of England not Bush), the American colonists would have been terrorists. Which would make our founding fathers (those guys who's faces are on our money) no better than Osama Bin Laden and Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
According to the U.S. Government of the 1800's, many of the Native American tribes would have been terrorists. Forget the fact that they were here first.
According to Hitler, all Jews were terrorists, and were conspiring against the good and peaceful German people. He accused them of fire bombing the Reichstag (the German equivalent of the Capitol building), and used that fact as a means to turn public opinion against them.
According to the British government at the time, Gahndi would have been a terrorist, despite his pacifism.
According to the Russian Czar Nicholas II, the Bolsheviks were terrorists. Despite the fact that hundreds of Russians starved to death while the Czar choose to remain oblivious to the concerns of the "lesser class".
The Aztecs and Mayans were certainly seen as Terrorists by the Conquistadors.
The Christians were seen as terrorists by the Romans.
Again, I can go on and on.
Never forget history is not an account of fact, but instead the point of view of the "winners" over the "losers".
