Paul Findley : Why They Hate Us
IF AMERICANS HAVE a conscience, we have no way of knowing, because most of them are UNconscious. We must be awakened to the truths Paul Findley expresses here. He, like William Pfaff in today’s Guard, are the only prophetic voices of conscience we have in the U.S. news media. Read them. ASSIMILATE what they have to say. We must put a halt to what our vicious national leaders do. — George Beres
Lies, damn lies and WMD
As the saying goes, “Our military forces are making more enemies than they can kill.”
by Paul Findley
Author : Former Congressman Paul Findley
Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarvnaev scribbled his motivation on the wall of the boat in which he was hiding and signed his name. Believing he might die while in the boat of gunshot wounds, he wanted the American people to know why he and his brother, already killed in gunfire, exploded lethal bombs during the finale of the Boston Marathon: It was payback for U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan fatal to many fellow Muslims.
The scribbled motivation statement came to public attention in a CBS broadcast last week. Bomber motivation was first published in The Washington Post days after the bomber’s arrest. The Post quoted U.S. officials “familiar with the interviews.”
Readers of the April 25 issue of London’s The Guardian learned the Boston bomber’s stated motivation was strikingly similar to those stated by the three other men sentenced recently in U.S. courts for terrorism.
When Najibulla Zazi, an Afghan-American, pleaded guilty to planning the bombing of a New York City subway in September 2009, he told the court: “Your honor, during the spring and summer of 2008, I conspired with others to travel to Afghanistan to join the Taliban and fight against the U.S. military and its allies …. During the training, al-Qaida leaders asked us to return to the United States and conduct martyrdom operations. We agreed to this plan. I did so because of my feelings about what the United States was doing in Afghanistan.”
When “underwear” bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty on February 16, 2012, to attempted bombing of a commercial plane in flight, he explained: “I made an agreement … to attack the United States in retaliation for U.S. support of Israel and in retaliation of the killing of innocent civilian Muslim populations in Palestine, especially in the blockade of Gaza, and in retaliation for the killing of innocent and civilian Muslim populations in Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and beyond, most of them women, children, and noncombatants.” He added: “If the United States does not get out of Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries controlled by Muslims, we will be attacking the U.S.”
The man who planned a Times Square bombing, Fais al Shahzad, a Pakistani-American, was arrested May 3, 2012, aboard a plane ready for takeoff from New York City to Dubai. He told U.S. officers he was motivated to the bombing by his opposition to U.S. policy in the Muslim world.
When he pleaded guilty in court the presiding federal judge asked how he could justify killing innocent children. Shahzad replied: “Well, the drone [U.S. warplane] hits in Afghanistan and Iraq–they don’t see children, they don’t see anybody. They kill women, children, they kill everybody … all Muslims.”
Except for the disclosure of the motivation of the Boston bomber by The Washington Post, no other coverage by major U.S. media seems to have occurred until Thursday.
Indifference to terrorist motivation — or neglect thereof — was overwhelming in the deliberations of the presidentially-appointed Official 9/11 Commission. Responding to my questions several years ago, Lee Hamilton, co-chair of the commission and my former congressional colleague, provided details. He said he and the other co-chair, former Governor Thomas S. Keane, on two separate occasions proposed scheduling hearings on motivation. Both times the recommendation was shouted down by other commission members. Hearings on motivation did not occur.
The voluminous report of the 9/11 Commission contained only one brief mention of motivation. An unidentified member of the commission staff inserted in its report a vital statement of motivation expressed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [KSM], identified by the commission as the chief organizer of 9/11.
The statement read “By his own account, KSM’s animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences [living in the United States] but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel.”
It appears out of context in the center of a large paragraph on Page 147.
The Guardian provided the first direct evidence of motivation in the three recent episodes. In effect, the Boston bomber and the three men already sentenced for terrorism viewed bombings as revenge for killings of Muslims by U.S. military forces in Muslim countries.
Under U.S. military policy, no records of enemy deaths are maintained. Filling the gap, Harvard professor Stephen Walt has compiled data showing U.S. forces killed more than 260,000 people in Muslim countries in this young century. During the same period, U.S. deaths in 9/11 and the two wars total 10,200.
There is strong evidence U.S. killings, especially those via drone warplanes, are counter-productive, as each death may recruit several new partisans into the anti-U.S. cause.
As the saying goes, “Our military forces are making more enemies than they can kill.”
Paul Findley served in Congress, 1961-83, for 10 years as senior Republican on the House Middle East subcommittee. He resides in Jacksonville, Illinois, and is the author of six books, the latest titled Speaking Out.
George H. Beres is a is a writer and commenter, a Eugene, Ore., resident.
Read more from Hon. Paul Findley:
Tough Love Can Bring A Just Peace
Paul Findley speaking on 45th anniversary of Israel’s deliberate attack on the USS Liberty
Paul Findley on Israel
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2013/05/29/223946-paul-findley-why-they-hate-us/