Fact and Fiction in the War on Terrorism

It's nine years since that newest day of infamy. We've armed the borders, we're fighting two plus wars and we live under constant threat of attack. Except for some diligent field work and extraordinary luck those threats would have materialized.

But Americans aren't any closer to grasping what this is all about than they were on Sept. 12, 2001.

We've bought into this preposterous notion the reason Islamic terrorists hate us is because of our freedom. If terrorists simply despised democracy and "western decadence" they could have attacked Sweden a lot easier.

They chose the symbols of American power representing -- what they perceive to be -- the military occupation, economic plundering and cultural desecration of their Muslim homeland. They are holding the U.S. responsible for the West's messing in the Middle East for millennia.

Our global military, economic and political clout has provided us a pretty sweet life, but you don't get to be 4.6 percent of the world's population snagging 33 percent of its resources without throwing your weight around and, in the process, ticking off a whole lot of the natives. Most Americans don't think of their country as a colonial empire but that's what colonialism does; just like the Romans, the Crusaders and the British.

We could pull the plug on al Qaeda's whole raison d'être simply by withdrawing troops from Muslim countries, ending our economic and cultural hegemony and terminating support for Israel and Arab despots throughout the region.

No, I'm not crazy enough to believe any of this is realistic -- nor even prudent -- but wouldn't it be refreshing to end the charade we're under siege because Jihadists hate us for who we are and not for what we're doing?

But you see the only way America can protect its economic and geopolitical interests in the region -- i.e. oil and Israel -- is if the government, along with a complicit corporate media, vests the narrative with the cosmic majesty of "protecting Americans' freedoms." The public just wouldn't spend trillions of dollars and sacrifice their kids only to make the world safe for Saudi King Abdullah, Exxon-Mobil and illegal Jewish settlers.

Or maybe they would. Maybe way back in the recesses of their mind Americans do understand maintaining their quality of life necessitates
what the government refers to as a "strategic interest" in the region but what for Jihadists is the "Tenth Crusade." Maybe we've become so jaded and materialistic, that Orwell's perpetual war is worth it for cheap gas.

Even the generals insist this war cannot be won on the battlefield. Acknowledging the "War on Terrorism" is in reality "America's Final Colonial Venture," would be a huge step in reaching a successful conclusion.