In the wake of the new attacks on Bali, we get the usual "reasons" trotted out (ie Iraq, Afghanistan, Bush, Palestine, Global Warming, Sexual Dysfunction) and of course the old stinker:
"We must ask, Why do they hate us?"
(No one made excuses for Eric Robert Rudolph, though...)
It's always particularly amusing, since some people will latch on to one reason (ie Iraq) but always ignore others (Afghanistan, East Timor), mainly because it enables them to fashion a suitable ideological club.
One such man is Robert Fisk, who as Tim Blair notes, after a long tirade on Muslim oppression from as far back as 1917, gets caught out with this:
TONY JONES: In one of his rambling justifications for these kind of terrorist acts, Osama bin Laden pointed the finger and said Australians were targeted in Bali because they intervened in East Timor.
ROBERT FISK: Yes. I think the East Timor thing is a lie by Osama bin Laden—I don’t think that’s what it is about.
No good reason is ever given why it is a lie, of course, except for the convenient fact that it fits Fisk's own ideology. (ie if only we hadn't invaded Iraq we'd all be safe!!!). I've noted before this strange phenomena of Western sophisticates projecting their own disagreements about Western foreign policy on terrorists but it's quite strange to see it up close.
It's creepy, really, that Bin Laden can froth on and on about East Timor, Crusaders in the Holy Land, the "tragedy" of Andalusia and all manner of lunacy, and there never fails to be someone who will "helpfully" translate it to mean:
"Of course it is all because of Iraq....no other reason....Don't listen to what he says, listen to what I say!"
In a far better article, Christopher Hitchens says, "Why ask Why?"
Posted by Quentin George at October 5, 2005 08:13 PM