We
"need to understand the mind of a terrorist," goes the refrain.
No, we do not need to understand the mind of a terrorist so much as
we need to understand the mind of a Arab Islamic "terrorist-victicrat."
Following the bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Time
magazine interviewed Osama bin Laden. Time asked, "What
can the U.S. expect from you now?" Bin Laden said, "Any
thief or criminal or robber who enters another country in order to
steal should expect to be exposed to murder at any time. For the American
forces to expect anything from me, personally, reflects a very narrow
perception. Muslims are angry. The Americans should expect reactions
from the Muslim world that are proportionate to the injustice they
inflict."
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, a man Bin Laden admits knowing, serves a life
sentence for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Before his
sentencing, Yousef told the court, "The government in its summations
and opening said that I was a terrorist. Yes, I am a terrorist and
I am proud of it. And I support terrorism so long as it was against
the United States Government and against Israel, because you are more
than terrorists; you are the one who invented terrorism and using
it every day. You are butchers, liars and hypocrites."
This angry, historically warped, worldview spell one thing: victim.
The West, according to Bin Laden assumed its military, financial,
and cultural dominance through cheating, lying, "exploiting"
the less privileged, corruption, stealth, and brutality. Does the
United States come to the table with completely clean hands? Of course
not. Name a country that can.
The 4,000 years of recorded human history show conquest, invasion,
commerce, religious conversion, and war. The Middle East is no exception.
In Conquests and Cultures, part of a trilogy on the history
and culture of the world, author Thomas Sowell says, "The Ottoman
Turks became Moslems after conquering Islamic nations, as the Slavs
became Christians after invading Christian Europe, as the Manchus
adopted Chinese culture wholesale even before conquering China, and
as the ancient Romans absorbed the culture of the Greeks whom they
conquered."
Osama bin Laden and his followers call America "the great Satan."
But, according to Sowell, "By the time the Europeans discovered
the Western Hemisphere at the end of the fifteenth century, Moslem
merchants already dominated the slave trade in West Africa, as they
did in East Africa and North Africa. The Islamic jihads of
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries created new Moslem states
in West Africa, which in turn promoted enslavement on a larger scale.
Altogether, between 1650 and 1850, at least 5 million slaves were
shipped from West Africa alone." And while slavery ended in the
West, says Sowell, "In some Islamic countries in Africa and the
Middle East, slavery lasted even longer. Saudi Arabia, Mauritania,
and the Sudan continued to hold slaves on past the middle of the twentieth
century."
Bin Laden’s followers speak of American imperialism, the bombs
we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the enslavement of blacks, American
support of Israel, and our support for national security reasons of
unpopular regimes in the Middle East.
But from the end of the Second World War until several years later,
America stood in sole possession of the mightiest, most destructive
weapon known to humankind—the atomic bomb. Did America use it
to conquer and dominate its neighbors? No. Despite anticipated hostilities
with the Soviet Union, did Harry Truman decide to "get it over
with" by attacking that country? No. The gap between America
and the world’s second mightiest country is the widest in history.
Yet America gives more aid, provides more humanitarian relief, gives
more "debt relief," and continuously demonstrates a restraint
of power historically unique
Osama bin Laden considers himself in the Muslim world a victim of
an unclean, unjust super-power. But Sowell points out, "…Morally
reprehensible behavior has been all too widespread among all branches
of the human race, rather than being localized in those who happened
to achieve greater success in conquest or in economic activities….Once
again, the mundane reality is that productivity creates wealth, so
that trade with and investment in more productive countries is a far
more important source of wealth than ‘exploitation’ of the
Third World, however that elusive term might be defined."
So as we learn more about the mind of a "terrorist-victicrat,"
let us demand that they learn more about the real reasons for the
West’s dominance: respect for private property, the rule of law,
individual rights, no state-sponsored religion, a Constitution that
limits the power of the government, and free markets and international
trade.
Anger, bitterness, and a warped and unbalanced view of history constitutes
the mindset of a "terrorist-victicrat."
Can one reason with that kind of worldview? Only a fool sits around
waiting for the answer.