How to unpack the Tsarnaevs’ real motives

[DonViejo]

A new report suggests they were mad about U.S. foreign policy. The truth: it's more complicated than just that

BY JORDAN SMITH

What motivated the Boston bombers? That’s the question on everyone’s minds, in the face of a new report suggesting that suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left a note in his boat attributing his alleged actions to retribution for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ultimately the debate has come down to this: Is anti-American terrorism and violence a result of anger at U.S. foreign policy, as former Salon writer Glenn Greenwald and others claim? Or does it result from religious extremism, as blogger Andrew Sullivan argues?

The answer is: both. The two are entangled. First, it must be noted that Islamists are hardly the only people in the world angry at American actions in the world. Consider that Russians have nearly as unfavorable a view of Obama’s international policies, as well as the U.S. overall, as do people in Muslim countries. Greeks disapprove of U.S. drone strikes more than anyone else in the world, including Muslim-strong countries such as Jordanians, Egyptians, Lebanese and Tunisians.

Nor can it be argued that American foreign policy is more harmful to Muslims and Arabs than anyone else in the world. Reckless drone strikes are a terrible post-9/11 phenomenon, but Islamist terrorism predated that date by years. The U.S. certainly did terrible things in the Middle East before 9/11, such as implementing devastating sanctions against Iraqis. But American foreign policy often had terrible results in other places, as well. Colombia, for example, was the victim of brutal U.S. drug policies. (It’s worth mentioning that during the 1990s, when Al Qaeda emerged, Americans saved Muslims in the Balkans while bombing their oppressors, the Orthodox-Christian Serbs, and liberated Kuwait from Saddam Hussein.) Much Islamist anger is directed at Western support for dictators in the Middle East, but of course that is U.S. policy in South America, Central Asia and Africa, as well.

And yet, with few exceptions, it is extremist Muslims, not South Americans or Central Asians, who are the foreigners violently attacking Americans (or wanting to). If Greenwald is right, there should be a direct correlation between the harmful effects of U.S. foreign policy and support for anti-American terrorist attacks. But there isn’t.

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http://www.salon.com/2013/05/16/how_to_unpack_the_tsarnaevs_real_motives/