September 11, 2001---a date that will no doubt live on in the minds of people for years to come. A chapter in history books, a paragraph, a footnote? We can't tell. Surely many things larger than the attack itself can, and to some extent have (at the time of this paper) already occurred. Will it cause a war, a draft? Will people protest, presidents deceive the blood of innocent people spill? Will governments be dissolved? Will lives be shattered again and again? It is uncertain; the future cannot be predicted, but surely a reason in the past exists.
To explain the "attack" on September 11th as merely an act of evil people who sit around thinking of new evil plans to destroy innocent lives and cause chaos would certainly be an uneducated and ignorant claim. Adversely it would be wrong to say that the mass destruction and loss of life was deserved, necessary or just.
English: Osama bin Laden interviewed for Daily Pak...
English: Hamid Mir interviewing Osama bin Laden fo...
English: Frame grab from the Osama bin Laden video...To understand that a reason existed at all would be a revelation for most Americans.
The masses of people who have judged the Arabs, the Middle Eastern world, and the Taliban responsible for these acts are highly undereducated in the history of America's foreign policy, and that is merely scratching the surface. They fail to understand why anyone would want to attack this great nation, let alone the innocent people who enjoy the freedom it provides them. Sadly enough, most Americans will never take the time to investigate the atrocities done to Middle Eastern people -- they are destined to remain forever ignorant of the affairs of a place oceans away from them. They will rely on the mainstream media, television, and magazines for what they know of the world.
Unfortunately, in today's world, the media doesn't always give both sides of the story, as this is a business, and in business the need to make money complicates matters. This truth, further compounded by the propaganda of the U.S. government, makes for a rather ignorant, apathetic American citizen. Right away the question was, who had done this? The media went to the most likely suspect, a known terrorist, Osama bin Laden. Media sources had quickly affirmed that Osama bin Laden was indeed the culprit. No evidence of his involvement in the crime was given, just a history which at best made him a suspect. He became a man who was toted before the public eye as guilty of a crime because no one else would have done this. An egocentric view on American citizens' parts, to think that the U.S. only has one enemy who is willing to perform such a horrific task. President Bush was quick to blame evil but evil like this does not come unprovoked.
If it's not evil that motivated these acts against humanity, then what is it? Could the U.S. have provoked these attacks? Perhaps the foreign policy built around money and trade finally backfired. For years the U.S. has been involved in the foreign affairs of the Middle East. The U.S. slowly took the identity from the Muslim people by changing their borders and westernizing their cultures but the U.S. government has not told the public about any of this. Though this is not something new to the American people they seem to be in denial of the past.
Many conflicts have occurred where the United States has been accused of making the wrong foreign policy decisions, one of the more well-known cases, and well-documented at that, is Vietnam. The atrocities that the United States government committed there have taken nearly forty years to be exposed and no doubt the whole truth is still not known. The ignorance of the American people about the atrocities, which its government has committed, is not due to a lack of intelligence; it isn't a lack of ability to grasp the truth. It is due to the fact that the American government, the leaders of the press, the education systems, and the corporations do not particularly want the people to know.
The foreign policy of America and the actions which it has taken in the Middle East proves that the U.S. government deliberately hurt the countries in the Middle East, oblivious to what the people there wanted. This goes against all the notions of freedom and democracy that American citizens are screaming for today. Americans want freedom to be protected, well, that's what the Arab people want too, they want freedom. Freedom from a country that has haphazardly promoted the death of thousands and thousands of people, throughout the last 54 years, in an attempt to get leaders that will make decisions that economically benefit them.
Though the death of thousands may not be justified, perhaps reasons do exist for the tragedy. Maybe the claims of "terrorists" and thousands of starving children crowding streets to celebrate the defeat of American idealism have some background that is being overlooked. Reasons do indeed exist for terrorism, reasons far beyond what can be learned from watching CNN.
Pete Souza, Official White House Photographer
U.S. propaganda leaflet used in Afghanistan, with ...
Celebraciones en Nueva York por la muerte de Osama...
Osama bin Laden is shown holding a remote while wa...