Yesterday, the A.P. interviewed Defne Bayrak, the wife of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who killed seven CIA employees in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. What would make a doctor travel thousands of miles and die to kill some people he’s never met? According to Bayrak “her husband was outraged over the treatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison and the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.”
This is direct evidence that American foreign policy motivates terrorists. Now, it’s true that Bayrak could be lying, and her husband simply hated Americans because we allow booze and strip clubs, but that doesn’t make much intuitive sense. Who gets more pissed off about the licentious behavior of foreigners than the torture and violent deaths of the people he identifies with most–in this case his fellow Muslims? I’m sure there are some people out there who will become terrorists just because they want to kill the infidels, but an American foreign policy that continually hurts Muslims (or is at least perceived that way) only pushes more people in that direction.
You bring up an interesting point here, one that I’ve tried to wrestle with for some time. There are important questions to ask when facing a problem…one of them is “why?”. As crucial as it is to understand and react to the “how and when” aspects of terrorist acts, you must, at some point, ask why? Imagine if the only exposure you had with American culture was via television, how would you perceive us as a country? You and I may know that the average person may not aspire to fulfill the ‘new American dream’ as seen on TV, but if you believe that it is an accurate representation of our country, what would you want to do about it?
Let me just say that I do not believe that anyone deserves to die or be harmed. But I can’t say that, on a global scale, we don’t seem to ask for it.
Individually, and as a whole, we need to step back and take a look at the way we present ourselves to others, and instead of finding a scapegoat, to step up and say, what can I do to help?
Motherfuckers need to mind their own fucking business and respect the cultures and religions of others. (Like western culture and religion). People are stupid.
Don’t just beat around the bush there Boobar, tell us how you realy feel…