A Level Gaze

A Level Gaze

"What effect must it have on a nation if it learns no foreign languages? Probably much the same as that which a total withdrawal from society has upon an individual."
--G.C. Lichtenberg

Sunday, July 17, 2005

United States of America: Terrorism Supporter

A joint Saudi-Israeli (!) study has found that the foreigners fighting against the US occupation in Iraq are motivated by the invasion itself. Reading that, I thought 'yeah, yeah, tell me something I didn't know.' And then they did: the mujaheddin who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan were bad guys!

Out of the 154 [foreign] fighters [in Iraq] analyzed, only a handful had past associations with terrorism, including six who had fathers who fought the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, said the report, compiled by the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Herzliya, Israel.

Since when were the Islamic mujaheddin who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan considered "terrorists?" We helped fund them. We helped train them. We helped arm them. We provided them crucial intelligence. We organized a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics because we strongly believed the Soviet invasion was illegitimate.

So now those who put their lives on the line, with our help, are to be regarded as "terrorists?" At the time, they were eulogized by none other than Saint Ronald Reagan as "the true voice of the Afghan people..." As of April, 2004, our friend and ally Hamid Karzai addressed them as "Mujahedin heroes."

Obviously, something has changed. Perhaps 16 years' worth of sober reflection has brought us to the conclusion that the Soviets were in fact justified in their invasion of Afghanistan, and our misguided efforts to counter it amounted to supporting terror. Perhaps our invasion of Iraq was in part an attempt to make up for our past mistakes. Indirectly, it's a reasonable conclusion because we currently consider terrorists those who are fighting against the invaders of their own country and in support of their co-religionists and fellow Arabs.

Or maybe it's just more politically convenient Newspeak. We have invaded a sovereign country, and thereby sparked a massive uprising that has drawn foreign help against what they clearly see as imperialist aggressors. It suits our purposes to cast those who fight against us as evil terrorists. However, the existence of so close a parallel, in which we were instrumental participants on the other side, puts the boldfaced lie to our righteous self-justifications. Far more galling has to be the fact that our then-allies, now-enemies have been steadfast in their adherence to their principles. As for us, Oceana has always been at war with the Mujahedin.

posted by David at 7/17/2005 11:19:00 AM ::

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