The Problem Is Foreign Interventionism, Not Muslims By Jacob G. Hornberger
(2016-11-29 at 16:49:36 )

The Problem Is Foreign Interventionism, Not Muslims by Jacob G. Hornberger

With Donald Trumps accession to the presidency, the United States anti-Muslim crusade is going into full swing. According to an article in the November 14 issue of the Washington Post, hate crimes against Muslims hit their highest level since 2001. An article in yesterdays Post stated that four mosques have received letters stating that Trump will do to Muslims what Hitler "did to the Jews."

Ever since the 9-11-01 New York City attacks, religious bigots have used that event as the excuse to go after Muslims. The problem with their mindset - or at least one problem with their mindset - is that they are letting their religious bigotry prevent them from recognizing that the root cause of anti-American terrorism is not based on religion but instead on the United States governments interventionist foreign policy in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

In other words, if there had never been United States invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, there never would have been the 9-11-01 attacks, which means that Americans would probably still be obsessed with communism and communists rather than with Muslims and Islam.

Think back to the Cold War era. Interventionists never expressed any concern about Muslims. The concern was exclusively on communists. The communists were coming to get us.

There was an international communist conspiracy based in Moscow. If United States troops were not sent to Korea, the commies would soon be walking the streets of Washington, D.C. If United States troops were not sent to Vietnam, the dominoes would begin falling and the Reds would soon be running the Internal Revenue Service and the Interstate Highway System.

Cuba was a communist dagger pointed at Americas neck, requiring the Central Intelligence Agency to do everything it could to murder Cuban President Fidel Castro. United States-instigated military coups in Guatemala and Chile to keep communists from being democratically elected. Spying on Martin Luther King and left-wing organizations as suspected communist fronts.

It was all about communism. Be afraid. Be very afraid. The anti-communist crusade was all that people talked about and thought about.

Nary a word about Muslims, Islam, the Koran, or caliphates.

With one big exception. United States officials praise extremist Muslims, partnered with them, and glorified them.

Recall when it was the Soviet Union, rather than the United States, that was doing to occupying of Afghanistan. When the United States government decided to oppose the Soviet Unions occupation of that country, take a wild stab at who they partnered with.

Yep, you guessed it! Muslims. And not just any Muslims. Radical Muslims. Extremist Muslims. Muslim fanatics. People who held the same religious convictions as Osama bin Laden, who was one of those extremist Muslim fanatics who were fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

It was those extreme Muslim fanatics with whom the United States government partnered during the Cold War. The government gave them money. It gave them the weaponry. It thanked them and glorified them.

Were Americans concerned about any Muslim threat to America and the Western world? Nope. Not a peep about those big, bad, scary Muslims who were coming to get us. Nothing about the worldwide caliphates that were going to be established. No fear of anti-American terrorist attacks. Everyone was just scared of the commie boogeyman.

In fact, read what Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carters national security advisor, said in January 1998 (some three years before the 9-11-01 attacks):

When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people did not believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You do not regret anything today?

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.

B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There is not a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.

After the end of the Cold War, interventionists did not know what to do. Many of them held on the communists and communism as their official enemy and undoubtedly would have continued doing so if the 9-11-01 attacks had never happened.

But then came 9-11-01, which began as an anti-terrorist crusade but quickly morphed into an anti-Muslim crusade. Soon, interventionists transferred all their fears, anxiety, and negativity that they had had for commies to Muslims.

But what the interventionists have never wanted to confront is that the 9-11-01 attacks had nothing to do with religion. They were instead rooted in anger and rage over what the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency were doing to people in the Middle East, most of whom happened to be Muslims. One good example was the deep anger over the United States governments killing of innocent children in Iraq, with its ten years of brutal sanctions for regime change. Another example was United Nations U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albrights infamous statement that the deaths of half-a-million Iraqi children from the sanctions were "worth it."

When a foreign regime is killing people, especially children, most of whom happen to be Muslims, it should not surprise anyone when retaliation time comes, those who are retaliating are likely to be Muslims. So, once that happened, the interventionists seized on the opportunity to blast Muslims and Islam rather than point out and oppose the root of the problem - United States interventionism in the Middle East.

As I have long been pointing out, there is no good reason for any American to wage an anti-Muslim crusade. All that Americans have to do is pull the national-security state - i.e., the military and the Central Intelligence Agency out of the Middle East and Afghanistan. Just bring the troops home and discharge them. No more killing, bombing, or assassinating at the hands of United States military forces.

At that point, the threat of anti-American terrorism dissipates. No more war on terrorism. No more anxiety over Muslims.

Who then will be made a new official enemy? Hey, there are always drug users, illegal aliens, and maybe even Russia or China.

Printed here with permission from Mr. Jacob Hornberger of The Future of Freedom Foundation!! Their Great Website!!