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Re: Monday, October 15, 2001
Falwell and Robertson may not order their followers to kill people, but some of them do anyway. Fundamentalism in any form frquently preaches and almost always accepts intolerance. Bin Laden views himself as a 'freedom fighter' and to the extent that reality evolves from perception, this is true. The problem is that his definition of 'freedom', and th syle by which he fights for it, are both anathema to people of the US and most of the western world. Drums beat and flags wave, and we lose ourselves in justifiable ire morphed into a renewed patriotism. But this isn't a war of patriots. On the other side, we are asked to consider foreign policy errors that led inevitably to 9/11. While mistakes were made, these are at most catalytic and not causative. US 'foreign policy' is a post WWII pehnomenon, just over 50 years old. The source of 9/11 goes back much, much further. If this war is about anything, beyond the immediate respective agendas of the participants, it is a 'time war', the 21st century VS the 11th. It is feudalism feeling threatened fighting emerging and immersive technocracy. It is truly a holy war, and its seeds were sown over a thousand years ago, long before the United States even exisited. This doesn't justify bin Laden, but Sun Tzu cautioned the wise general knows his enemy. Bin Laden is -an- enemy, but -the- enemy is soemthing far more pervasive and far older that we do yet (publicly) admit.
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