Friday, September 11, 2009

Anthony Gregory on the Causes, Aftermath, and Lessons of 9/11

In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, much has changed about life here in these United States. Much has also changed about the way in which this country conducts itself abroad. The issues at stake have created deep divisions among us: why can't we get Osama bin Laden? was the Iraq war necessary? what do we do now?

In the following wonderful article, Campaign for Liberty editor-in-chief Anthony Gregory examines the causes, aftermath and lessons of 9/11. What he says may be difficult for some to accept, but I feel that it will be impossible to deny:

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Understanding the Atrocity

Why did it happen? One answer given was that the terrorists simply hated America for its freedom. Those who believed this tended to feel that war was the only answer -- war to punish the evildoers and war to rebuild foreign societies so they would be free and no longer resent us. Another answer given was that the terrorists, although murderous criminals, were exploiting genuine grievances that many people in Muslim countries had against U.S. foreign policy.

Osama bin Laden repeatedly stressed the major objections: The U.S. had been supporting apostate dictatorships in the Muslim world, given one-sided support to Israel, occupied holy land such as the Arabian Peninsula, and enforced brutal sanctions on the Iraqi people that had left hundreds of thousands of Muslims, mostly children, dead.

Americans are warned not to forget what happened eight years ago, but we must not assume history began on that date. Those in the Muslim world tend to have a much longer memory.

In 1953, the CIA helped to oust the once-democratically elected leader of Iran, a man who had been featured as Time Magazine's "Man of the Year" just a year before, and replaced him with the corrupt and brutal Shah, a dictator who ushered in a period of torture, terror and mass inflation. Twenty-six years later we saw the "blowback" -- a term the CIA uses to describe the unintended reaction from American policy abroad -- in the form of the Islamic Revolution. Iran fell under the grip of fundamentalists, but most of the nation would not rally against America for purely cultural reasons. What united them was resentment toward the U.S. meddling in their country.

Meanwhile, as part of the Cold War, the U.S. began supporting agitators in Afghanistan so as to incite a Soviet invasion and bring about an overstretch of the Soviet military. Although today most Americans think of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan at the time as purely defensive against Soviet belligerence, President Carter's National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski admitted this was far from the case in a 1998 interview:

"According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention."


These U.S.-allied Mujahideen in Afghanistan were championed as "freedom fighters," but many went on to form the basis of the Taliban and al Qaeda. The Taliban became one of the most brutal and backwards regimes on the planet, but as late as May of 2001, the U.S. was sending tens of millions of dollars to the Taliban to finance its war on opium...

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Read the full article at: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=213

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Robert Hawes, this is Mykl Meagher. We shared thoughts, created the Three Forks Vision Statement together and both signed it in 2004. I am contacting you and the other signers to see what might happen out of these contacts.

Mykl
406 593-6362

Johann Van De Leeuw said...

My dear Sir, I really appreciate your article, and am intending to read your book.
I am inquiring into your credentials, as I would like to use parts of your article for evidence during a number of debate tournaments over the next several months.
I would greatly appreciate a speedy response. I have bookmarked your blog, so a reply via comment or post would be great!
Your Most Humble and Obedient Servant,
~Johann

Robert Hawes said...

Johann,

Thanks for your comment, and I hope you enjoy the book!

As to my credentials, I have a B.A. in pre-law, but I didn't pursue law and I am not a professional academic, so I'm not sure what to tell you in that arena. If you need to refer to me by any specific label, I suppose you could just call me "the author of "One Nation, Indivisible, a Study of Secession and the Constitution" (that is generally how I'm introduced in the world at large when it comes to opinion, interviews and such). I'm not really anyone special. ;-)

Johann Van De Leeuw said...

Thank you very much, Sir, I greatly appreciate it.
God bless you!
~Johann

Jesse said...

Robert,

Hello, my name is Jesse, I'm an editor with a small local liberty/constitution minded newspaper called The Liberty Voice in Columbus, Ohio. We came across your article entitled: Martial Law vs. Christian Responsibility, and liked your work very much. We'd like to request permission to print it and also speak with you about possibly linking to and promoting your blog, and a few things like that. You can reach us at sherry@thelibertyvoice.com

Blessings,

Jesse.