Antiwar movement losing steam?????

Gordon Fitch gcf at panix.com
Tue Oct 30 07:13:28 PST 2001


Jørn Andersen:
> ...
> I think the best way forward is to point out that the real problem behind
> the Sept 11 attack is poverty and global unequality, and that the US and
> European governments should do someting about this, if they mean anything
> by "countering terrorism". Their war is an attempt to maintain that poverty
> and inequality, and it will not only create more terrorism - it *is* terrorism.

I think a different analysis is required.

The problem with the poverty theory is that the poorest nations do not produce the most terrorists. As a nation, in fact, the present terrorist-producing regions, like Saudi Arabia, are relatively well off. (Afghanistan, a truly poor country, is not being bombed because it sent terrorists to America, but because it is a truly poor country and the United States and its allies think they need to bomb something. It's a habit, I guess.) Nor do the present terrorists claim to be fighting because of poverty; the offenses they have complained of have been religious and political offenses. I believe those who want to think about them should take them seriously; people who were willing to exercise the degree of discipline, courage and cruelty which we have recently observed were probably serious about their beliefs.



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