Taste of What is to Come
by Charley Reese
King Features Syndicate (August 16 2006)
The plot to blow up several American and British airplanes over the Atlantic is merely a taste of things to come. Fortunately, this particular plot was foiled by Scotland Yard and the British counterintelligence people. The death toll might well have exceeded that of the attacks on September 11 2001.
The lesson to be learned is that terrorism is a tactic, and you can't wage war against a tactic. Just because you block one punch doesn't mean that others won't follow.
The root cause of terrorism is politics. People who feel offended, abused or injured by the policies of the major powers but have no armies with which to defend themselves often resort to terror. It's the only weapon available to the weak.
When you find yourself the target of terrorist tactics, you can't kill your way out of it. That's because, if left unchanged, the same policies that produced the terrorists will keep on producing them. As a matter of fact, the more terrorists you kill, the more you create, especially in cultures where revenge is an important ingredient.
What is needed is a reassessment of our foreign policy. For example, why are we hated by so many Palestinians? The answer is easy: We have been grossly unfair to them. Whatever the Israelis wished to do to them - kill them, destroy their homes, uproot their orchards, confiscate their lands, subject them to all kinds of humiliation - has been perfectly okay with the US government. The last American president who was unafraid of offending the Israelis was Dwight Eisenhower. In 1956, he told them to get out of the Sinai or he would freeze all of their assets. They got out of the Sinai.
Today, there is no avoiding stating the plain truth: We have a Jewish problem. The government is totally paralyzed and is unwilling to issue even the mildest rebuke to Israel, no matter how outrageous its behavior. Why? Because the Jewish lobby is so powerful, American politicians are afraid of it. I don't blame the Jewish lobby for the cowardice of American politicians. American Jews have a right to lobby the government. But we don't elect politicians to serve three percent of the population and a foreign country. We elect them to serve the interests of all of the American people. The politicians need to learn how to say "no" when our interests and Israel's interests conflict.
For more information on the lobby, read They Dared to Speak Out (Lawrence Hill, 1985), edited by former Representative Paul Findley, and The Passionate Attachment (W W Norton, 1992) by former diplomat George Ball.
The American invasion of Iraq created more hatred of the United States. It's hard to think of a more stupid decision. We removed a check against Iran and completely destabilized Iraq, which is now in danger of breaking apart. That may have been our secret intention, since a broken Iraq will be weak and easy to dominate. The only trouble is, it is much more likely to be dominated by Iran than by us. We are now being harshly criticized by the elected Iraqi officials who owe their jobs to the 2,600 American dead.
We have stationed a large number of American military forces in the Persian Gulf. This is resented by most of the people. It is also stupid. What do we think? That some pirates will sail out of the Indian Ocean and steal all of the oil? Whoever runs the governments in the area will gladly sell their oil to us or anybody else.
The only way to win the war on terrorism is to revert to our republican roots and give up imperialism. We're no good at imperialism anyway. Our foreign policy should be just what George Washington said it should be - trade and commerce with all, entangling alliances with nobody, and absolutely no interference in the internal affairs of any other country.
That's not going to happen unless Americans clean house in Washington, and what will happen if they don't clean house is that our children and grandchildren will live under the threat of terrorism because of the stupidity, greed, corruption and cowardice of the American political establishment.
Copyright (c) 2006 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20060816/index.php
Bill Totten http://www.ashisuto.co.jp/english/index.html
King Features Syndicate (August 16 2006)
The plot to blow up several American and British airplanes over the Atlantic is merely a taste of things to come. Fortunately, this particular plot was foiled by Scotland Yard and the British counterintelligence people. The death toll might well have exceeded that of the attacks on September 11 2001.
The lesson to be learned is that terrorism is a tactic, and you can't wage war against a tactic. Just because you block one punch doesn't mean that others won't follow.
The root cause of terrorism is politics. People who feel offended, abused or injured by the policies of the major powers but have no armies with which to defend themselves often resort to terror. It's the only weapon available to the weak.
When you find yourself the target of terrorist tactics, you can't kill your way out of it. That's because, if left unchanged, the same policies that produced the terrorists will keep on producing them. As a matter of fact, the more terrorists you kill, the more you create, especially in cultures where revenge is an important ingredient.
What is needed is a reassessment of our foreign policy. For example, why are we hated by so many Palestinians? The answer is easy: We have been grossly unfair to them. Whatever the Israelis wished to do to them - kill them, destroy their homes, uproot their orchards, confiscate their lands, subject them to all kinds of humiliation - has been perfectly okay with the US government. The last American president who was unafraid of offending the Israelis was Dwight Eisenhower. In 1956, he told them to get out of the Sinai or he would freeze all of their assets. They got out of the Sinai.
Today, there is no avoiding stating the plain truth: We have a Jewish problem. The government is totally paralyzed and is unwilling to issue even the mildest rebuke to Israel, no matter how outrageous its behavior. Why? Because the Jewish lobby is so powerful, American politicians are afraid of it. I don't blame the Jewish lobby for the cowardice of American politicians. American Jews have a right to lobby the government. But we don't elect politicians to serve three percent of the population and a foreign country. We elect them to serve the interests of all of the American people. The politicians need to learn how to say "no" when our interests and Israel's interests conflict.
For more information on the lobby, read They Dared to Speak Out (Lawrence Hill, 1985), edited by former Representative Paul Findley, and The Passionate Attachment (W W Norton, 1992) by former diplomat George Ball.
The American invasion of Iraq created more hatred of the United States. It's hard to think of a more stupid decision. We removed a check against Iran and completely destabilized Iraq, which is now in danger of breaking apart. That may have been our secret intention, since a broken Iraq will be weak and easy to dominate. The only trouble is, it is much more likely to be dominated by Iran than by us. We are now being harshly criticized by the elected Iraqi officials who owe their jobs to the 2,600 American dead.
We have stationed a large number of American military forces in the Persian Gulf. This is resented by most of the people. It is also stupid. What do we think? That some pirates will sail out of the Indian Ocean and steal all of the oil? Whoever runs the governments in the area will gladly sell their oil to us or anybody else.
The only way to win the war on terrorism is to revert to our republican roots and give up imperialism. We're no good at imperialism anyway. Our foreign policy should be just what George Washington said it should be - trade and commerce with all, entangling alliances with nobody, and absolutely no interference in the internal affairs of any other country.
That's not going to happen unless Americans clean house in Washington, and what will happen if they don't clean house is that our children and grandchildren will live under the threat of terrorism because of the stupidity, greed, corruption and cowardice of the American political establishment.
Copyright (c) 2006 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20060816/index.php
Bill Totten http://www.ashisuto.co.jp/english/index.html
posted by Bill Totten at
10:09 PM
8 Comments:
Never have heard of this Charlie Reese but he is an idiot by any definition.
By
Anonymous, at 6:15 AM, August 26, 2006
"That's because, if left unchanged, the same policies that produced the terrorists will keep on producing them."
So, if the Senior Democratic Senator, Kleagle Byrd, rallies his old buddies to start a bombing campaign against black residents of W. Va, then Americans should try to satisfy their demands instead of fighting against them?
Or does this just apply if we have a handy supply of Jews to sacrifice?
By
Anonymous, at 4:16 PM, August 26, 2006
what a jackass, im ashamed to be in the human race with this man, just go home, and shut up.
By
Anonymous, at 12:07 PM, August 28, 2006
Charley Reese is absolutely right. Unfortunately the US and Israel are taking the route of total failure. Even Britain, France etc had to give up their colonies eventually, in spite of calling Jomo Kenyatta from Kenya a terrorist and Mandela from South Africa a terrorist--These two people and others eventually became good rulers of their countries. What a shame that both the so called World Wars were really wars started by west and it appears Bush (again west) want to start another war--this might easily turn into a world war, killing half of the people and the rest of the people will start dying of cancer. How unfortunate that we have become so greedy and hpocrit. We tell our children to share toys with their friends etc. We also tell them not to bully anyone and to report to us if they are being bullied. Yet Isreal do not want peace with Palestinians but want to occupy it. Bush wants to occupy Iraq. These plans will not succeed. Not only they will fail, but eventually they will have to pay for the peoples lives and the damages they have caused. And then Bush says he is a reborn Christian. I am a Muslim and totally respect Christianity, but I do not believe Bush is following Christianity, because Christianity (or ANY RELIGION IN THE WORLD) does not allow killing and occupation.
May God bless you all and may God bring humanity in the whole world.....ameen
By
Anonymous, at 1:58 AM, August 29, 2006
Sieg Heil right Charlie? You been channeling Jimmy Carter?
What a anti-semetic putz.
By
Anonymous, at 12:49 AM, August 30, 2006
hey #4, nice argument except for the fact that Israel has pulled out of what I like to call Transjordan.
While you're at, got anything to say about the killings being perpetuated in the name of your religon? Anything???????
By
Anonymous, at 12:52 AM, August 30, 2006
By the way #4, the west might have started world war II, but the Grand Mufti sure got a quick out of siding with the Nazis.
By
Anonymous, at 12:54 AM, August 30, 2006
It won't truly have success, I believe this way.
By
muebles en huelva, at 10:23 PM, October 31, 2011
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