Addicted2Movies wrote:Alright here's my question. If we accept your way of thinking, as in it is our fault, then what is your next move? What do you tell the American people who's family members and friends have been killed by terror attacks? And what if it happens again? What is your next step? I don't mean this in a mocking way. I'm legitimately curious.
Well, my way of thinking is based on empirical data, from the terrorist themselves and using data sets, so again, it's much more definable and testable than the notion that they hate us for our way of life. And I don't mean this in a condescending manner, but you obviously didn't read my paper because I discuss all of those issues. But I'll go into it briefly here, since you have the expanded answers:
What do you tell the American people whose family members and friends have been killed? You show them respect and dignity and thank them for all they've done, and you thank them for their children's service to their country. You don't go into some discussion about the crux of the debate over whether it was our fault or their fault or what have you. But again, Osama bin Laden answered this very question, here are his words:
"If there is a message I may send through you I address the mothers of the American troops. To these mothers I say, if you are concerned for your sons, then let them object to the U.S. government’s policy."
What if it happens again? What is your next step? Imagine yourself as a doctor. Do you suddenly prescribe a medicine without appropriately diagnosing the condition? Of course not. First, you have to diagnose the problem. The reason they are attacking us, and the reason they are recruiting people in droves to kill the United States (and practically only the United States, remember that next time you're convinced that this war is being fought over our way of life because there are plenty of countries that are democracies and have freedom of speech and women's rights) is because of our presence in the Middle East with military bases, our constant drone bombings, and our collusion with various affiliates in the region (Israel) that many Muslims view as decidedly anti-Islam and egregious to their way of life.
The threat of an attack goes down rapidly if we remove our presence in that region. Again, I could go on for 40 pages worth, all of the irrefutable evidence is in those pages, it isn't some sort of theory, it is empirical data, I cannot stress that enough. No, the threat isn't going to disappear over night even if we remove ourselves from the region, because they're not going to trust it's genuine. But I can assure you, we are breeding terrorists with our policies, and we are becoming more isolated in the world because of it.
My entire paper is about showing how suicide terrorism (including 9/11) is done to propel a foreign occupant from the terrorists' homeland. Here is an excerpt, from the paper, that is just a tiny marcel that proves, quantitatively, that our presence in Lebanon in the 1980's not only sparked suicide terrorism, but that it also had nothing to do with a radical religious agenda:
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Practices of suicide terrorism date as far back as the ancient Jewish Zealots, who attempted to liberate themselves from the occupation of the Romans in the year A.D. 66. One of the more recent examples of suicide terrorism against the United States occurred in the early 1980s in Lebanon. With an ongoing civil war within the region, as well as conflicts between Lebanon and Israel, the United States decided to intervene in the conflict. From 1982 to 1986, the group known as Hezbollah conducted a suicide terrorist campaign against American, French and Israeli forces in an attempt to compel the occupants from their country (Ibid p. 204). Expanding on what was previously mentioned; over 241 U.S. Marines were killed in 1983 alone, in the capital of Beirut (Mingst, Snyder 2011 p. 399). According to numerous martyr videos and written statements, the demographic information and motivating factors behind the attacks became even more evident. Approximately 71% of the Lebanese attackers identified themselves as Communists or Socialists, with 21% identifying themselves as Islamists and 8% as Christians (Pape 2005 p. 205). This information alone helps to dispel the common perception that this particular terrorist movement is comprised of a radical Islamic ideology. Among the suicide attackers were 6 women, one of which, Norma Hassan, was a Christian high school teacher. Yet perhaps the most stunning and useful information regarding the attacks is that once the foreign occupants left the country, all of the suicide terrorist attacks stopped immediately. Professor Robert Pape notes, “Since Israel’s military withdrawal in 2000, there has not been a single Lebanese suicide attack” (Kelly 2010). According to international and suicide terrorism experts, the campaign waged by Hezbollah in the 1980s began the recognition of the effectiveness of suicide terrorism to dispel foreign occupants.