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Complete agreement. But I tend to look first at what's closest to home, and what presumably in a democracy I might be able to influence (or help other people learn to influence). There's no end to corruption and fanaticism, and that's on the heads of the corrupt and the fanatic. That the government of my country helps keep the former in power and employs the latter when it serves the latest contingency is on our heads. Mark At 09:26 PM 9/14/2001 -0400, you wrote: >It might be worth considering that multinational capitalism, though >considerably, is not exclusively American; it involves Shell and Sony as >well as IBM, Lloyds as well as Aetna, the Bourse as well as Wall Street. > >It might be worth considering that the Arab countries are governed by >variously corrupt oligarchs who are more concerned with their own wealth >than the welfare of their people, and who in time-honored fashion feed >the latter on nationalism and scapegoats. > >It might be worth considering that amidst the images of violent >stupidity that Western popular culture offers the Third World are images >of free individuals, independent women, and self-creating youth, which >are intolerable to authoritarian fanatics. > >It might be worth considering that for Osama bin Laden and his ilk >Israel and the Palestinians are merely a pretext. They see themselves >as involved in a war of civilizations, sworn to purge the Dar al-Islam >from corrupt Western influences and to return it to purity - which bin >Laden has explicitly equated with the code of the Taliban. > >Let me make it clear that I condemn all bigotry and scapegoating - most >immediately, that of Arab-Americans. That I oppose Sharon's >provocations, and Israeli settlers seizing Palestinian land. But I also >oppose maniacs blowing up themselves and 20 or 40 or 50 - or 5000 - >innocent people. America could take a stronger position against the >settlements. But if there were genuine goodwill and desire for peace on >the part of Arab governments, instead of the convenient scapegoating I >mentioned, they would long since have worked out a peace that would have >satisfied and benefited all parties. > >Let me add two things. One: I regard all fundamentalism - whether that >of bin Laden, the ayatollahs, Orthodox xenophobes, or Jerry Falwell and >Pat Robertson - as a sickness. Two: I oppose George W. Bush and all >his beliefs and policies. Yet I have to agree with him that the events >of Tuesday are an attack on civilization itself. >