Sunday, May 2, 2010

Why Is It Always the Muslims?

With regards to the bomb placed in Times Square David Wood asks the question:

"Why, then, aren't we surprised to hear, over and over again, that terrorist attacks are almost always carried out by Muslims?"

He's absolutely right. It is always Muslims. But you must keep in mind that this is only true when we adhere to the conventional definition of terrorism. Terrorism is their violence against us. When we are violent towards them that's not terrorism. That's security or self defense or liberation. This is the reason, David, that it's always carried out by Muslims. By definition it has to be.

So take for instance the Israeli assault on Gaza that killed 1400. Self defense. Even though the pretexts have evaporated. Not terrorism because Israel does it with US support. Take Obama's drone attacks. All those dead civilians. No big deal because we're at war. Oxford Researh Bureau's death toll in Iraq was at 1.3 million two years ago. Pretty staggering. That's not terrorism. That's liberation.

When polls indicated Vietnam would vote the wrong way in a free election the response by Kennedy was to initiate a war that would leave about 4 million dead. When Nicaragua likewise voted the wrong way in a fair election 40,000 civilians were slaughtered during the Reagan years. They did it with US warplanes flying around identifying the Sandinista military so the Contras could avoid them and focus exclusively on defenseless civilians. Today perhaps the country with the worst human rights record in this hemisphere is Colombia. It's also the leading recipient of armaments from the US in this hemisphere. To be a union organizer is to take your life in your hands. Chemical warfare occurs even today against the poor peasant population. But then that's not terrorism because it's done by America.

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