Naomi Klein:The Likudization of the World; The True Legacy of September 11

[reprehensor]

The Likudization of the World: The True Legacy of September 11

Russian President Vladamir Putin is so fed up with being grilled over his handling of the Beslan catastrophe that he lashed out at foreign journalists on Monday. “Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House and engage in talks,” he demanded, adding that, “No one has a moral right to tell us to talk to child-killers.”

Mr. Putin is not a man who likes to be second guessed. Fortunately for him, there is still at least one place where he is shielded from all the critics: Israel. On Monday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warmly welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergie Lavrov for a meeting about strengthening ties in the fight against terror. “Terror has no justification, and it is time for the free, decent, humanistic world to unite and fight this terrible epidemic,” Mr. Sharon said.

There is little to argue with there. The essence of terrorism is the deliberate targeting of innocents to further political goals. Any claims its perpetrators make to fighting for justice are morally bankrupt and lead directly to the barbarity of Beslan: a carefully laid plan to slaughter hundreds of children on their first day of school.

Yet sympathy alone does not explain the unqualified outpourings of solidarity for Russia coming from Israeli politicians this week. In addition to Mr. Sharon’s pronouncements, Israel’s Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom commented that the massacre showed that “There is no difference between terror in Beersheba and terror in Beslan.” And the Associated Press quoted an unnamed Israeli official saying that Russians “understand now that what they have is not a local terror problem but part of the global Islamic terror threat. The Russians may listen to our suggestions this time.”

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[el_gato]

1. This article seems completely ignorant of history

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Ignorant of what history?

I can't see any mistakes in it.

[el_gato]

3. Well for one it acts like this violence is unprovoked

Yet the nations of Russia, U.S., Brittain, France, and Spain just to name a few have spent the past several hundred years brutalizing the rest of the world. Thus, when the downtrodden begin to strike back it should come as no surprise as to why. Violence begets violence and
the only way to stop terrorism is to stop engaging in it.

Invading Iraq is a perfect example. Anybody who thinks that this
invasion is somehow going to rid the world of hate for America is
very myopic indeed. The same goes for Russia, which has been
terrorizing the breakaway republics for years now. It's the classic
case of chickens coming home to roost and then acting like
somekind of victim. How many people has Putin murdered in
Chechnya at this point?

The horrible ugly truth is that this terrorist violence is a direct
result of the self-serving policies of the world's elite.
Howard Dean is right when he says this invasion of Iraq has not
made anybody safer. In fact, it has done nothing but generate
more hate in our direction.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Did you read the same article as me?

Klein makes precisely your points:

There has indeed been a dramatic and dangerous rise in religious fundamentalism in the Muslim world. The problem is that under the Likud Doctrine, there is no space to ask why this is happening. We are not allowed to point out that fundamentalism breeds in failed states, where warfare has systematically targeted civilian infrastructure, allowing the mosques start taking responsibility for everything from education to garbage collection. It has happened in Gaza, in Grozny, in Sadr City. Mr. Sharon says terrorism is an epidemic that �has no borders, no fences� but this is not the case. Everywhere in the world, terrorism thrives within the illegitimate borders of occupation and dictatorship; it festers behind �security walls� put up by imperial powers; it crosses those borders and climbs over those fences to explode inside the countries responsible for, or complicit in, occupation and domination.