This week I was invited to attend a conference about terrorism. As a published author on the direct political affects concerning terrorism on American soil, I was invited to mediate the discussion between the different groups. Those in attendance were mainly college students and primarily from foreign countries, or at least not American. That’s not to say that American’s were not present because there were many, but the majority were young college students from very different parts of the world.
Normally I like round-table discussions. As boring as it all sounds, round-tables still pump me up. As a panel member, my main jobs were, one to keep the facts present, and two to keep the discussion flowing. The first topic was The Causes of Terrorism. It all sounded pretty good. I mean in order to have a serious discussion about terrorism I agree that one should start at the beginning and work from there. It’s like a disease, knowing the cause helps not only in the prevention but the cure as well. So we started at the beginning.
The first topic on the agenda was to be discussed for 45 minutes, and for what seemed like the longest four hours of my life, the panel along with the groups in attendance debated every cause of terrorism humanly known, and it all was blamed on America.
Sure I’m the first person to admit that I think George Bush’s policies do very little in combating terrorism, and probably do more to incite it than alleviate, but I’m not naïve enough to believe that if America were taken out of the equation then all would be well. But the group that I was engulfed by, even the panel members, all believed that America not only brought it on itself, but also in many ways deserved it. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. For four hours the first topic was never satisfied.
Within the first 20 minutes I could tell that I was not amongst people with a grip on reality. So I sat quietly and listened.
I heard nothing about the reforms that need to take place in the Middle East in order to stop the oppression within their own societies. I heard nothing about Saudi Arabia and wahhabism. I heard nothing about the human rights violations in every member nation of the Arab League, or about the hijacking of a religion to where they promise boys 40 virgins for strapping bombs to their belts. I heard nothing about sleeping Europe and its refusal to deal with young unemployed angry Muslim men, where 17 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 became “extremists.” All I heard was that unless America changed then terrorism would continue and become worse. The blame was passed to everything American.
I agree we have to change. We have to do more to stop the causes of terrorism. But we are not the only ones. This can’t be an effort merely on behalf of America. It won’t work that way. And if those countries that harbor, support, incite, breed and glorify terrorism do not, or are not forced to change, then none of us stand a chance.
After four hours we broke for lunch, and after listening to complete and utter nonsense, stupidity in a room full of supposedly educated people, I followed the crowd into the cafeteria. While seated at a table with some of the biggest loudmouths of the conference I was asked by a Frenchman why I had been so quiet and not said a word. I replied “Because I do not agree with everything that is being said, and I think that if we cannot talk about the reforms needed in the Arab world then we will not accomplish anything today.” He looked shocked at what I had said, and shrieked, “Well, you are obviously a racist.”
I said a few choice words and got up from the table and left the conference center. I never went back. I’m sending the organizers a nice little letter describing what a fine conference they put together. I’m assuming I will not be invited back.
Granted this was not a G8, or any kind of world summit, but these are the very folks’ hearts and minds that we aim to change. I also understand that this occasion in no way represents the entire world or for that matter validates the “with us or against us” Texas talk of Bush. But this does pose a very important problem and along with a lot of unanswered questions on my part. As I was leaving I overheard a table of foreign students discussing an episode of Sex And The City and something about Eminem. Oh how they devour our culture by night and curse us by day. Irony and hypocrisy indeed.
8.04.2005
Passing the Blame
Posted by Chris at 12:01 AM
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15 comments:
I apologize to David Schantz. I published this post earlier and David left a comment. For some very odd reason, and I have no clue why, Blogger apparently decided to eat the post. It disappeared. My entire post was lost. Or maybe my site is being monitored :)
So sorry Dave for losing your comment. Hopefully this post will stay up this time.
Blogger, you got some funny ways man.
I have to agree with your post MJ. Some people are too fixated on blaming the United States for problems caused or left unresolved by dictators overseas and it is must amazing to think about it.
Why would a person who feels "empowered" enough to blow him or herself up choose to strike us and not the very (in some cases) secular dictatorial regime that he or she hates?
I posted this a couple of hours ago as well, did you erase it on purPose. LOL
Does the oppression within their own society cause terrorism? Should we not let Saudi Arabia get rid of the radical Islamic elements on their own and not interfere, is it our interference which they feel antagonizes he situation, and seriously is that a cause of world terrorism? I’m not sure I would relate any of that to world terrorism but then again I don't know I might be able to see where they are coming from especially if I did not come from this country.
They have their own propaganda machines, we have ours.
It is obvious that what we have become over the last few years has indeed clouded the perception of the world as to other potential causes of terrorism. Is it really so surprising that college age individuals from around the world feel this way. They have their own propaganda machines running as well and as much as everyone would like to think that people actually spend time thinking about all this it is obvious that they grab on to a certain point of view even if it is not totally born out by research, facts or history.
It may be that these people can not see oppression within a certain society as a cause of world terrorism, it may be that these people feel that it is up to Saudi Arabia to deal with their own radical Islamic element and that they don’t see how it might affect them, I’m not certain it does either but as I have very little knowledge about world politics or foreign affairs or anything such as that I will not go further into that.
Eventually it may become evident to the world, when they see that the educated Muslim populace from our country does not seem as prone to world terrorism as the uneducated easily indoctrinated young Muslim boys from across the sea.
I find that college students in general, and maybe this is presumptive of me but probably world wide, when indoctrinated with a certain train of political thought often choose sides and go with it rather than actually trying to figure out the whole situation.
Sorry this happened.
Possibly you were meant for better things.
Maybe if I remove the expletive it will post this time.
MJ, I have to say that I am not surprised that it was a Frenchmen that felt you were a racist. In my travels while living here in Germany, most other folks seem very interested in talking politics just to see if your ideals are the same as the President's.
When they find that mine have now been shaped by my life experiences over here and I do not have all the same ideals they are VERY intrested in hearing how you could "change the world" given the chance. Only the French that I have ran into are still so stubborn. Nothing an American could say would impress them nor be good enough for what ever vision they have.
Sadly just as I came to Europe with a midset of how they are, the French have a mindset of how American's are. What's worse is that although my ideals changed (as most other Europeans I ran into) the French seem to only stay the same.
I hope that your next confrence (should not be banished) that you either work with more flexible people or meet a Frenchmen who truly can learn from others just I have have learned from others.
HH6
Heretic, it's a fixation indeed. And it's not that I totally agree with US foreign policy either. In many ways I would argue that we have no foreign policy, or it seems to be a foreign policy adaptable at will and applied whenever Bush is startled by something. It is also true that those who do strike out at America do so because in many cases we do prop up their very illegitimate governments. Legitimacy is the cause of many problems, or lack thereof.
Alice, I have no clue what's going on. I do know I didn't delete anything on purpose. Well I might have deleted your comment on purpose because you no longer have a pic all bent over now. Just kidding. All I know is that I posted the thing and the next time I checked it, it was gone.
I do think the oppression within is a cause of terrorism. I also think that the governments such as Saudi Arabia and others have to be willing to stop terrorism themselves. Because after all, the very fact that we as America can invade and takeover seemingly with ease in any country in the world does also fuel the hatred and the desire for terrorism, thus in not all circumstances or countries will an American invasion thwart terrorism or its spread. But even with all that, I do believe that terrorism is an ideology, which means that it's taught and encouraged. So the question is: how do we fight an ideology?
The good news is, is that America is actually really good at fighting ideologies, but really lousy at winning over hearts and minds. We have to develop a foreign policy that meshes the two together. It is very doable. Except that would require Bush to abandon his neocon advisors and actually develop a coherent policy. I'm sorry, but I just don't have that much faith in him to do so.
Oh, and you can cuss away Alice. I try not to edited comments.
HH6, yeah the French guy was really out of line. He had been the whole morning. He thought he was so smart. He's probably a professional grad student who will eventually let his alcoholism get the best of him. I like French people and would never let this one idiot distort my view. I'm glad that we have very well-minded individuals like yourself overseas representing us. Yeah and I seriously doubt I'll be going back next year.
Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting. You all are quick! And hopefully this will not be erased.
Not only can we invade and take over any country at will but we have and that has made this attitude worse. The at will and with ease is questionable to some degree as our daily body count increases though.
Logically then to fight terrorism one must educate and address the issues
of poverty and lack of education among the young male Islam populace.
To address something the heretic said it is obviously the lack of empowerment that allows for them to be fed whatever nonsensical idea that blowing themselves up is empowerment.
MJ I think there is a fine line in fighting ideologies and think that unless we first fight the conditions which allow the extreme ideologies to exist, one has to come before the other.
This(our) government also has to start looking at things out of a larger lens so to speak as their narcissistic attitude is, I feel, part of the problem; developing the needed foreign policy might be easy from your perspective but I can’t see it being easy with this administration.
As for the French, what do you expect, they are now getting rid of their bidets and it is all due to us and some of them are petty pissed off.
When asked about the beginnings of terrorism, I think many people overlook an important part of history. Terrorism, even in it's present form, has been around for centuries. Starting with the pirates of the Barbary Coast, leading up to the terrorist activities in France 150 years ago, continuing with Israel and manifesting itself into a worldwide epidemic.
There has never been an opportunity to reason with terrorists and those that support those activities, they simply refuse that logic. I think I may post a rant soon about this. Cause I could go on for sometime. MJ, next time you get an invite, let me know, would love to hear this stuff in person.
Alice, I think we are pretty much on the same page. I do think a coherent foreign policy is very unlikely right now with this administration. And certainly pre-emptive invasion has proved costly. I think the war on terrorism must be fought on multiple fronts, including military, but also other realms as well.
Craig, I agree terrorism is nothing new. In fact, our own revolution was regarded as a form of terrorism and was referred to many times by the monarchy as an insurgency. I'm not sure anyone is calling for talks or to "reason" with the terrorists. At least I have never called for that, and I don't think it has been mentioned during this comment section. However, the Bush administration has admitted to negotiating with the terrorists:
Rumsfeld Confirms Talks With Insurgent Leaders
And again:
U.S. Talks With Insurgents
Joseph, I have to agree my man.
Thanks to all for reading.
I am not really going to comment on the whole causes of terrorism thing, because I feel this post was more about people flapping their trap, but not listening, and not grasping other opinions other than theie own: a problem that many people are afflicted by. I think you did the right thing...and the only thing that pisses me off is that when you left there, they were probably all thinking: "yeah, we told that racist dick." Whatevers...the meek shall inherit the earth.
Wow,
I certainly felt their was some discourse if that is not the point of all this and one is to merely say " dude good point" why bother commenting at all.
MJ,
this is by far my favorite post. you really discussed a very important issue... how those who hate our ways absolutely utilize our culture. i recall detaining a major terrorist in iraq and his home was deocrated with tina turner stuff.
as for the u.s. being the major problem, i'm of the opinion that if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. even though our actions are not always respected by the world, at least we're trying to do something.
No problem. Just stopping by now to let you know that I have posted my Question Of The Week, I hope you will stop by to answer it. When I hear about the French opposing us I can't help but wonder if they have forgot about World War Two.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic.
It seems that American foreign policy is stuck on two dichotomies for the most part: neconservative hawkishness that relies a lot on the basic premises of realism and Samuel Huntington, while on the other hand are the doves who come from some kind of ultra-liberal (in the foreign policy sense of the world) view where only transnational actors and NGOs are the primary actors. Why can't there be a strong voice for some kind of traditional libera foreign policy that assumes states are critical, as are transnational actors and the emerging age of global interdependence? To me, that seems to be the best approach on foreign policy to get us through the next couple of decades. Unfortunately, we get stuck hearing the two polar ends of the debate and nothing in the middle gets solved.
Smink, thanks man. That means a lot coming from you. Now Tina Turner, that's funny stuff.
Schantz, thank you for understanding. I will visit your site tonight.
CVG, you must be new here. Welcome aboard.
Alice, I think you might have misread CVG's comment. But you are absolutely right that the discussion is what I'm looking for, and you do a great job of contributing.
Woods, you are very correct. I have a post called Longing For the Middle. You would probably agree with it.
Thanks to all for reading.
Chris Woods -
You need to read Thomas Friedman's column in The New York Times. He's generally the guy who speaks up for your way of thinking.
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