Do you honestly think Arabs would sit around all day thinking about how evil America is and how they want to destroy us? I'm sorry, but people everywhere are going to think about what's in their daily lives, what they have contact with, their job, what they're going to eat, who they want to fuck. When you're country is run by a US-propped up dictator, and when you have relatives and loved ones who die as a result of US invasions, and US policies, it gives someone a reason to think about how much they hate America. We give them reasons to hate us, and they hate us, and pointing out that this is a natural outcome doesn't mean that the outcome is necessary.
Think about all of the people clamoring to run off and explode themselves for Allah, though. They're doing it based on principle rather than as a result of our actions. I suspect that a helluva lot of the people fighting against us have never been directly affected by us. They're doing it because they're young, stupid and idealistic, and those qualities aren't going away.
No, those qualities aren't going away, but the way they are expressed would change. Are young, stupid and idealistic Muslims any different then young, stupid and idealistic Christians? No, not really. There will always be teen angst, but to think that this means there will always be people in the Middle East who will literally blow themselves up to get a few of us is just plain absurd. Also, those people are taken up into a cause by a leader, in this case Osama, whom it seems unlikely would have had a problem with America if it wasn't for our meddling in Saudi Arabian affairs. Perhaps the same young people would do some bad things in their own area, but they would have no reason to have problems with America. Maybe they'd go rob the local convenience store, or blow up someone they have a problem with - but they would not target America. You're pragmatism seems too far-reaching in this case, you're right to point out that the human emotions would not change, but the venting of those human emotions would.
It's ridiculous to think that people would have such hatred for no reason. Even if someone isn't directly affected by our actions, our actions and our meddling influences and penetrates the entire culture and media. When kids grow up, US is talked about as the great evil, and so kids grow up believing that kind of thing. Without our meddling, there would NOT be the impetus or the catalyst for the vitriolic hatred some people have for us, nor the organized fight against our imperialism. If I go punch a punk kid in the face, that's going to start a fight. What you would be doing is looking at the punk after I punched him in the face, and said that his emotions are natural, so that it's inconceivable that no matter if I punched him in the face or not, he would be angry at me.
Think about all of the people clamoring to run off and explode themselves for Allah, though.
Specifically regarding this, look at the reasons they give. Jihad's imply a sense of a lesser power fighting off a greater power, like David fighting of Goliath. In every case, when people go off and explode themselves for Allah, they're doing it because of some form of repression, some form of a Goliath, and they're David.
Topic: 9/11: Did the US foreign policy unintentionally provoke the attacks? (Read 3690 times)