Stop, Look, and Listen

The moaning and hand-wringing started within minutes after the 9-11 attacks: "Why do they hate us?" And of course, none of the answers that was suggested sufficed to explain the situation -- nor was it meant to. The last thing anyone wants to do at a time like that is to take a look at what the "terrorist" organizations have actually said, and written; we know they're just a bunch of lying, sneaky reptiles, so why should we believe anything they say about why they do what they do? But that's funny, since the government has, in the past, spent billions of dollars on "analysis", studying every jot and tittle of writings that came out of places like Russia, China, Germany, and Japan -- and hanging on every public utterance of their leaders. But suddenly, in this case -- i.e. the "War on Terror" -- that method of analysis is considered totally non-meritorious. Could it be that we're more comfortable with the wrong answers than with the right ones? Let's look at the latest statement -- on the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary, no less -- from The Alleged Voice of Osama bin Laden" -- TAVOL for short. (Well, we know that no one ever actually sees _him_, and no one can prove that any of those broadcasts are actually of him speaking, so we're left with this kind of Howard Hughes-like persona, speaking from the shadows.) TAVOL said that the Palestinian cause "is at the heart of al-Qaida's holy war with the West." What that means -- for those of you in Rio Linda -- is that it's not about oil, or religious discrimination in the U.S. and Europe, or us making fun of Moslem names and clothing and customs, or the Koran, or our "wealth" (which is slowly ebbing away anyway), or our degenerate culture and profligate life styles. No, it's really quite simple -- it's about Israel, and the support we provide for the ongoing Indian-reservation treatment of the Palestinians. Now, why can't our leaders, just once, try listening to this? Well, because that would imply that the quickest way to resolve the "terrorism" issue would be to drop Israel like a hot potato -- and we certainly can't have that. So we continue to fight the "Global War on Terrorism" based on premises and assumptions that we _know_ to be false... and show absolutely no interest in approaching the problem on the terms TAVOL has laid out, time and time again. Now, what happens when you refuse to even recognize the reasons that your enemy has gone to war? It's a whole lot tougher to fight, and a whole lot tougher -- or maybe impossible -- to win. Sure, you can exercise brute force and ignore what's going through their heads. But like with fire, if you remove the fuel it will cease to burn, and that may be a much more efficient strategy. But of course, we could never do that, so...