The dust hadn't settled on ground zero before self-proclaimed intellectuals in the west started to chime in on how the west had brought this tragedy on itself. Among them were leftist Noam Chomsky, who argued that essentially, what happened on 9/11 was payback for American crimes against e.g. the Palestinians.
Chomsky, and other leftists, simply reject the idea that what islamic fundamentalists despise about the west is its freedoms and liberties, which is the official story of the governments in the west.
The truth often is somewhere in the middle. This time, however, Chomsky is simply wrong. Surely, the US' support for Israel's atrocities and its long history in supporting the most disgusting regimes during the cold war and beyond, has certainly provided ammunition for anti-americanism around the world. Yet, it would grossly overestimate the historical knowledge of the rank & file suicide bomber to assume this has anything to do with the hatred of the west throughout the Middle East. Remember: It is a common belief among Muslims in the Middle East that either the CIA or Mossad was behind the WTC attacks. The famous forged Protocols of Zion, also popular among Nazis, circulates as genuine. The grassroots in the Middle East has learned to blame America (or Jews, which they consider some of the same) whether it is to blame or not. Chomsky's attempt to attribute the terrorist's willingness to slaughter hundreds of innocents to a serious historical analysis would be laugahble, if it wasn't tragic.The religious schools who breed terrorists doesn't teach world history, not even history as leftists would like it taught.
Bin Laden himself attributes his hatred for America to neither liberal values nor its support for Israel. He started to hate his old sponsor because heathen troops were stationed in Saudi Arabia, the holy land for Muslims. He already hated the Kingdom, who, dispite being fanatical bigots, were the wrong kind of fanatical bigots for his taste. To Bin Laden, it was obviously of no consequence that the US & its allies stationed troops in Saudi Arabia to protect it from an imminent invasion from Saddam Hussein's Iraq. To a fanatic, practicalities doesn't count. What counts is that it is disgusting to him that sub-humans like us can eat and exist in a land he considers holy.
The Islamic fundamentalists who have launched terror attacks on the west are simply not concerned about welfare or justice. It would no doubt be more in line with the leftist views of the oppressed masses if the WTC suicide bombers were poor, desperate people who had suffered oppression in Palestine and were angered by American support for the oppressors. But time and time again history has taught us that terrorists are not the oppressed themselves, it is fanatical theorists, often upper-class, living in a world of their own, attributing the ills in the world on whatever they don't like. Be it Jews, Capitalism, England or America.
For reasons totally apart from terrorism, the west and the US should clear up its human rights record. We should stop accepting the human rights abuses of 'key allies' like the Saudi Kingdom. We shouldn't allow Israel to keep the occupied territories and oppress its population. We should take the bitter medicine early and support the institution of democracies throughout the world, even if some of them will end up hostile to the west, at least initially.
We should do this becuase it is right. But it will not diminish terrorism in the short run. Religious fanaticism is immune to facts and arguments. That is one thing it has in common with certain socialist 'intellectuals'.
