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Few people anywhere in the world,
including the Middle East, support bin Laden's terrorist methods. But
most people in the Middle East share his anger at the United States.
They are angry at the U.S. for supporting corrupt and dictatorial
regimes in the region, for supporting Israel at the expense of the
Palestinians and for imposing U.S. dictates on the Middle East through
military might and brutal economic sanctions.
The Bush Administration immediately instructed U.S. television networks
to "exercise caution" in airing bin Laden's tape messages. The official
reason?
The tapes may contain secret coded messages for terrorist operatives.
But were covert messages the Administration's main concern? Perhaps it
was more worried about the impact of bin Laden's overt message -- that
the September 11 attacks were carried out in retaliation for U.S.
foreign policy and particularly U.S. military intervention in the Middle
East.
If Americans realized that U.S. military intervention abroad brought
retaliation --causing death and destruction at home -- we might think
twice about whether the U.S. should be so eager to go to war overseas.
The Pentagon has demonstrated time and again that its advanced weaponry
can devastate countries targeted for attack, leveling basic
infrastructure and killing thousands, even hundreds of thousands of
people.
It would be naive to think there would be no retaliation.
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