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Asking the Right Questions About
Terrorism Simond Griote |
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People who ask questions and then answer them are people who talk to themselves. That is what the Bush government and many Americans are doing. When the 9-11 terrorist attack took place in America President Bush led in asking, "Why have they done this to us?" And instead of trying to get at the real reasons for the 9-11 attack, as if the government did not know, they went inside f themselves and pulled out some jingoisms--"They did this to us because we are a free nation and love freedom; we are wealthy and they are not; we are good and love freedom, and they do not." The president answered his question as quickly as he had asked it. And all America followed suit, as we can see through the US media services. But this simplistic answer Bush gave to this complex question speaks rather to the man not to the question itself. Furthermore, the answer was accepted and echoed by America, which tells us that we are a nation keenly attuned to hearing the analects of ourselves and only ourselves; we are a nation willing to go blind rather than see its warts; we are a nation that concocts its own history so that it will not learn the true lessons that real history would teach, were it considered. Tragically, these national gestalts force us to not hear the voices of reason in others who do not comport with our imaginations of reality. Today, President Bush joked about his being a man who listens to others and is flexible, based upon what others say. That surely was a joke not only for him but of all America. It is the ironic nature of this people, many unlearned as they are, to assume in all their vaunted unlearned glory, that they know better than all others. For the more unlearned one is the more arrogant he is in that pseudo-machismo that ignorance allows. A military engineer in Iraq stated that when the Americans arrived in Iraq, they assumed they had all the answers . They also assumed that the very fine and educated engineers of Iraq knew nothing; so the Americans did not listen to anything they had to say. Their solutions would not work for engineering problems or any other problems that arose. But he concluded, after being there for some time and seeing American know-how was, in fact, lacking, that the Iraqis knew quite a bit and that instead of the arrogance of Americans, it was time to embrace the Iraqi know-how. Their know-how got the job done. But seldom is this epiphany a part of America's national gestalt. In the face of reality, we will spin another reality that favors America. This mental psychosis is an American malady that will destroy this nation as a force in the world for good and as a viable nation on the world scene. Our psychosis afflicts us in that we may be able to ask the correct questions (some times) but we are seldom willing to accept answers that fail to match our desired response. Therefore, we talk to ourselves instead, and answer our own questions. That is precisely what we have done in this Republican war on terrorism. We have asked why and come to an answer that says that nothing this nation or its people have done in the world has caused others to attack us, other than being perfect, rich, and good! Therefore, we have never answered the real question of why there is terrorism against us. The answer to that question is certainly not what Bush and others unwilling to see the truth of America's behavior in the world will offer or allow. The answer to that question is geo-political in its scope. And that geo-political answer cites American military troops stationed around the world--unlike any other nation--American financial and business institutions and government manipulating the resources and the wealth of other nations and peoples to the harm of those people. Maybe this could have something to do with the terrorism directed at us. Just a thought. Surely, no one is willing to kill himself in killing others simply because he/she may not like the fact that we are rich and he is not. The Bush reasoning that has been accepted by large parts of America is a type of answer and reasoning that is simplistic and, frankly, absurd. That is the type of answer offered by a self-deluded man who is talking to himself and saying things that are self-serving, flattering, but not informative. We are our own worst enemy. We have caused much misery on many nations by our insatiable desire for their resources and by our stilted policies that favor one and deal unfairly with others? This nation and its people refuse to ask the correct questions and then seek honest and correct answers because we are a nation that is unwilling to see our own faults and flaws. But that unwillingness can kill a nation and a people. |
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