Zonie63
Posts: 2826
Joined: 4/25/2011 From: The Old Pueblo Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: dcnovice A few thoughts: -- "Hilarious!" was a jarring adjective to encounter in a 9/11 context. -- With OBL and all the hijackers dead, discerning their motives will likely involve guesswork, which may be one reason folks haven't rushed to do so. Given that the folks who perished on 9/11 included people from my own life, I'm particularly wary of anyone's effort to use their deaths to make political points. -- Is there really that much new to learn from the 9/11 attackers' motives? We already know that OBL resented the "defiling" of his homeland, that many Muslims detest our support of Israel, and the U.S. is far from perfect. -- There's a fine line between offering an explanation of why something happened and excusing it. That's a line I'd prefer not to see crossed in this instance. I must confess I've sometimes wondered if the zeal to "understand" 9/11 springs, perhaps unconsciously, from a hunger to say, "You see: It really was the United States' fault." I don't think anyone is actually excusing 9/11, but by the same token, any kind of fair and objective analysis of the events in question should not excuse or overlook anything - even if it might paint an unflattering picture of our own government and its policies. It may not necessarily address any specific motives OBL or AQ might have had; if they're already against the US anyway for whatever reason, it may just be a matter of looking for an opening and opportunity to strike. But it might also be necessary to look at what led up to it and the overall situation which was created in the first place, in regards to various US policies in the Middle East. I don't think it was the United States' "fault," either. Or at least, I don't think "fault" is the right word to use here. In terms of geopolitics, there are always many countries involved, not just one. Everyone is dirty to some extent. One thing that seems clear is that there is a tendency to reduce the "enemy" to one-dimensional raving lunatics. For some reason, a lot of people don't even want to "understand" beyond that level. I see the same tendency across the board on multiple issues, not just in regards to terrorism. But if they really were such crazed, violent maniacs, then their acts of terrorism would have no more significance than that of an earthquake.
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