Pubdate: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 Source: Bradenton Herald (FL) Copyright: 2004 Bradenton Herald Contact: http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradentonherald/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/58 Author: Tom Matthew FIND REASONS WHY THEY HATE US The war on terrorism is illusive and analogous to the wars on drugs and crime. A clear victory can never be established. In the war on drugs and crime, society tries to determine and address the root cause. Drug addicts are treated with counseling and criminals with rehabilitation. What motivates the terrorist? Are we doing anything to find out why we are the victims of Middle Eastern terrorists? We know they hate us but are we trying to determine why and can anything be done to eliminate their reasons? The terrorists will multiply and be a threat to America for generations to come unless we address the root causes. It is not as simplistic as Mr. Bush's statement that they hate us because we are a free democracy. Do they hate us because we are officious intermeddlers in their national affairs? Such as manipulating national boundaries, supporting repressive monarchies and dictatorships, using them as surrogates to fight the Russians, supplying F-16s and Apache helicopters to their enemies, and not supporting United Nations resolutions against their enemies? The CIA has been involved in covert ghost wars in the Middle East over the past several decades with little or no direction from Washington. Their policies were at the whim of each CIA director and the regional operation chief. With the help of the CIA we have done a good job of making enemies out of friends. They resent us because they believe we are interested only in their oil and look down on them as a colony. Do they believe we see the Israeli-Palistine war through the lens of the Israelis? Ramzi Yousel, the World Trade Center 1993 bomber, told the FBI that Jewish targets were his first priority but they were too secure so he bombed "his enemies' friends." Trying to root out terrorism without replowing the soil in which it grows is unlikely to succeed. It is time to start rethinking the policies that breed anti-American sentiment. Tom Matthew, Bradenton - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D