I thought i knew the answer but perhaps not.

A. israeli/palestinian conflict
B. result of alliances and enemies due to middle eastern oil
C. islam's call for war with infidels

1/20/2010 12:03:36 AM

lafta posting on the internet.

1/20/2010 12:10:00 AM

not c at all

D. meddlings in no israeli/palestian conflicts. too much cia.
E. result of alliances due to cold war

1/20/2010 12:13:57 AM

^^interesting theory, cause i registered in early 2001


^D would be same as A, and i dont understand how cold war allies affect the middle east

[Edited on January 20, 2010 at 12:15 AM. Reason : .]

1/20/2010 12:13:59 AM

thats supposed to be a non at not a no in D.

D is like A except places other than israel. ie the whole shah ordeal.

We did a lot of shitting on the middle eastern people during the cold war to prevent the area from going red. We won at the price of shitting on these people and they haven't forgetten.

we made the taliban too

we even made osama

read up on it

1/20/2010 12:22:45 AM

The Soviets didn't exactly lavish the Muslim world with peace and happiness, either.

But the main points are:

1) We like Israel, which has fought Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, and probably others that I'm forgetting, and which has major intelligence operations throughout the Muslim world.
2) We put troops in Saudi Arabia
3) American soldiers or intelligence forces have fought Muslims in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran, and have done the same or been blamed for doing the same in others.
4) America is the main source of Western cultural elements that are increasingly supplanting Muslim ones in the Muslim world.

1/20/2010 12:38:18 AM

Quote :

"we made the taliban too we even made osama read up on it"

You're confusing the US with Pakistani ISI. It's ok, a lot of people who read up on things on the internet are just as poorly informed.

1/20/2010 1:10:07 AM

^Actually you are mistaken on that one.

1/20/2010 2:32:51 AM

Quote :

"1) We like Israel, which has fought Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, and probably others that I'm forgetting, and which has major intelligence operations throughout the Muslim world. 2) We put troops in Saudi Arabia 3) American soldiers or intelligence forces have fought Muslims in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran, and have done the same or been blamed for doing the same in others. 4) America is the main source of Western cultural elements that are increasingly supplanting Muslim ones in the Muslim world."

1 is part of A's broader affect
2 is same as B
3 is a new reason, as mention by mambagrl, meddling in non israeli/palestine issues but i dont see that as a direct cause of terrorism, no major terrorist from iran, our help to bin laden was just that, help, he didnt turn on us until we were involved in the gulf war which was unrelated to what went on in afghanistan
4 is part of C

i dont think yall understand this any better than i do

1/20/2010 3:21:06 AM

Because of our freedoms, obviously.

1/20/2010 8:29:53 AM

1. We don't just LIKE Israel. To say we "like" israel is a wreckless undersatement. We pretty much MADE Israel.

Europeans of another religion come in and steal land, homes and everything from not only your brothers but your holiest of holy land. You immediately come to liberate them and who? the US gives them weapons to defeat you...THRICE.

When they look at Israel its almost impossible not to see them as an extention of US. All the opression the Israeli's commit is pretty much on us. Thats how they feel and rightfully so.

1/20/2010 8:57:31 AM

THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOM

1/20/2010 9:01:20 AM

^^Well, perhaps they shouldn't have picked the losing side in WWII.

There are lots of reasons, none of which justify blowing up civilians. Military targets are fair game in war and in guerrilla attacks. Civilian targets are only fair game if a war has been officially declared and only then in rare cases.

1/20/2010 9:11:15 AM

I'm sure Japan feels the same way.

I'm also pretty sure they target military as often as they can.

1/20/2010 9:38:45 AM

Quote :

"When they look at Israel its almost impossible not to see them as an extention of US. All the opression the Israeli's commit is pretty much on us. Thats how they feel and rightfully so."

Actually, I think it's the reverse. The United States is an extension of Israel. Israel can basically say and do whatever they want, because they know we'll have their back. There's no incentive to make peace.

Then there's the issue of us giving billions to Israel. I'm against foreign aid of all types, yet when you suggest that we shouldn't be dumping taxpayer dollars into Israel, you're accused of anti-Semitism. We're not improving Israel's situation, we just make the problem worse, and we're earning the hatred of terrorists all over the middle east. Israel is capable of defending itself. We don't need to be spending money we don't have in order to do it for them.

Of course, you can't tell that to a fundamentalist Christian here, who thinks the Israelis are "God's chosen people" and that the temple must be rebuilt in order to bring about the apocalypse.

1/20/2010 9:43:45 AM

If the title of the thread said "why do ARAB terrorists target America" then some of these responses might be closer to the point, but terrorism happens everywhere by all people.

Try telling the people of Oklahoma City that middle eastern oil had something to do with it:


By the way,

Quote :

"C. islam's call for war with infidels"

is pure dumb shit that I wish people would understand isn't true.

1/20/2010 9:55:50 AM

Quote :

"we even made osama"

false. Osama did not need to be made like the other anti-soviet Islamists we funded in the 80s. He was born into a wealthy family and had all the resources he needed to create al Qaeda and promulgate terrorism.

Now if you want to use "create" to suggest our actions in the region during the cold war and early 90s helped sow his hatred for us, then you have a little bit more of a point.

Oh and option C is most definitely part of it. They recruit impressionable young men and women and justify their jihad against the west using their warped interpretation of Islam.

[Edited on January 20, 2010 at 10:50 AM. Reason : .]

1/20/2010 10:26:49 AM

the jew gets it

1/20/2010 10:27:59 AM

Adding:

-Many Arabic countries were once ruled by the British Empire, so the anti-imperialist mindset has deep roots.
-Even though these countries became independent after WWII, they were immediately subjected to American (and Soviet) political and economic influence. America involved itself in every country's political workings, and American entrepeneurs were quick to capitalize on their thus-far unexploited resources.

1/20/2010 10:29:23 AM

God gets it

1/20/2010 10:56:08 AM

Corporate Imperialism

1/20/2010 11:25:34 AM

because it makes for great movies.

1/20/2010 11:28:21 AM

Are you assuming they don't target other countries as well?

1/20/2010 11:35:31 AM

iirc, there was a terrorist attack in Madrid the day before a national election a few years ago...and another in London not too long after that...

America doesn't own a copyright on being attacked

1/20/2010 12:01:12 PM

No one claimed that. The topic of the thread is perfectly legitimate. If he was curious as to why terrorists attack other countries, I'd assume he'd ask.

1/20/2010 12:06:38 PM

Why do Black men target White women for robberies?

By asking that, I'm in no way insinuating that Black men prefer to target White women, I'm just asking a question, duh!

1/20/2010 12:19:02 PM

the question by bbehe was just too dumb to respond to.
but as far as the original topic, i think the only people targeting american homeland are coming from al quaeda and they turned against us due to the gulf war and the resulting permanent force in saudi arabia

not sure of the details though

[Edited on January 20, 2010 at 12:22 PM. Reason : .]

1/20/2010 12:21:43 PM

A.) Don't terrorists prefer to attack America?

B.) Who gives a shit? Again, asking why terrorists target America is a perfectly legitimate question.


[Edited on January 20, 2010 at 12:25 PM. Reason : .]

1/20/2010 12:22:19 PM

^exactly

terrorist do target america.
they can also target other countries.
i asked why do terrorists target america.

1/20/2010 12:23:20 PM

Quote :

"but as far as the original topic, i think the only people targeting american homeland are coming from al quaeda and they turned against us due to the gulf war and the resulting permanent force in saudi arabia Not sure of the details though"

clearly

1/20/2010 12:28:03 PM

Quote :

"the question by bbehe was just too dumb to respond to. but as far as the original topic, i think the only people targeting american homeland are coming from al quaeda and they turned against us due to the gulf war and the resulting permanent force in saudi arabia"

So my question is too dumb to respond to yet you give that wonderful jewel of wisdom?

1/20/2010 12:31:41 PM

Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan explains:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcoHD4UclRU

1/20/2010 12:42:54 PM

Quote :

"Why do Black men target White women for robberies?"

Well, the point you're trying to make with that has nothing to do with race, and everything to do with sex. Men target women for robberies because women are weaker, and therefore less likely to put up a fight, meaning that the robbery is more likely to be a success.

I don't think that's at all analogous to the relationship between the United States and Al Qaeda/other similar terrorists groups. The United States isn't weak or defenseless. We're less like a woman being robbed, and more like an angry, foolish, blindfolded titan, with the terrorists being the small, fairly insignificant group shooting us with a pellet gun from the shadows. Even though we barely know who we're fighting, the terrorists provoke us knowing that they can elicit a gross overreaction. We blindly march into the terrorist's home turf, where they have the advantage, providing them with an easy opportunity to take American lives. Meanwhile, we're bankrupting ourselves.

Bin Laden has come out and said why he targets the United States. It's not a mystery. He has also said what his goal is: http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/01/binladen.tape/

Quote :

""We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said in the transcript. He said the mujahedeen fighters did the same thing to the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s, "using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers." "We, alongside the mujahedeen, bled Russia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat," bin Laden said. He also said al Qaeda has found it "easy for us to provoke and bait this administration." "All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations," bin Laden said. "Every dollar of al Qaeda defeated a million dollars, by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs," he said. "As for the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars. The total U.S. national debt is more than $7 trillion. The U.S. federal deficit was $413 billion in 2004, according to the Treasury Department. "It is true that this shows that al Qaeda has gained, but on the other hand it shows that the Bush administration has also gained, something that anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-corporations, like Halliburton and its kind, will be convinced. "And it all shows that the real loser is you," he said. "It is the American people and their economy.""

And this was written in 2004. Bin Laden's plan worked exactly as intended. In the history books, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda will probably go down as the people that brought an end to American hegemony. So much for national security, and so much for "not letting the terrorists win."

[Edited on January 20, 2010 at 12:46 PM. Reason : ]

1/20/2010 12:43:38 PM

Quote :

"We don't just LIKE Israel. To say we "like" israel is a wreckless undersatement. We pretty much MADE Israel. "

The British made Israel. Get your shit straight.

1/20/2010 12:50:05 PM

No, a UN Resolution & subsequent civil war made the nation of Israel.

1/20/2010 12:56:16 PM

Quote :

"Bin Laden has come out and said why he targets the United States. It's not a mystery. He has also said what his goal is"

yes, that's his stated goal. But what you posted doesn't get at the Why?

^the Balfour declaration (the British), the league of nations and the UN made Israel.

[Edited on January 20, 2010 at 1:01 PM. Reason : .]

1/20/2010 12:57:44 PM

^^A resolution started by the British who had partitioned the land since it was under the rule of their empire, and I wouldn't call it a civil war unless you call the American Revolution a civil war. Israel declared itself a nation, others attacked, Israel won.

1/20/2010 1:00:57 PM

Quote :

"A.) Don't terrorists prefer to attack America?"

They attack the UK and other European nations just as much.

They just didn't have any government assistance in other countries to pull something off as large as 9/11.

1/20/2010 1:04:20 PM

Quote :

"They just didn't have any government assistance in other countries to pull something off as large as 9/11."

Some can still get pretty big, granted not in the thousands, but certainly the couple hundreds...Russian school siege, Bali, Mumbai, Madrid etc

1/20/2010 1:14:08 PM

^thats what i meant by...

Quote :

"They attack the UK and other European nations just as much."

1/20/2010 1:20:26 PM

Terrorists target countries like America, because they want to bring suffering to any part of the world that is unaware or complacent to their own suffering. Obviously, there are countless other reasons, but essentially, that is the core reason.

1/20/2010 1:26:29 PM

From an Osama bin Laden speech in October of 2004:

Quote :

"God knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers but after the situation became unbearable and we witnessed the injustice and tyranny of the American-Israeli alliance against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, I thought about it. And the events that affected me directly were that of 1982 and the events that followed - when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon, helped by the US sixth fleet. In those difficult moments many emotions came over me which are hard to describe, but which produced an overwhelming feeling to reject injustice and a strong determination to punish the unjust. As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me punish the unjust the same way [and] to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/oct/30/alqaida.september11

1/20/2010 1:38:20 PM

1982 ABC News footage of the invasion of Lebanon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slUZdNddjPE

[Edited on January 20, 2010 at 1:44 PM. Reason : link]

1/20/2010 1:44:20 PM

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykNSpx1w9lA

1/20/2010 2:19:53 PM

The reason why America is targeted is because terrorism is the most efficient method against us.

An individual or organization attacks, and because of our pride we end up retaliating against an entire country, making us look like pricks to the global market, and in the end shoot ourselves in the foot.

If we didn't give in to the way terrorists want us to respond, there wouldn't be terrorist attacks against us. Maybe we could have a real war of one country against another and end it like we did in the old days.

1/20/2010 5:09:50 PM

Quote :

"The reason why America is targeted is because terrorism is the most efficient method against us."

I don't think you quite understand the question. The question wasn't "Why do our enemy's choose terrorism over conventional warfare?"

after reading the rest of your post it just reconfirms my suspicions

[Edited on January 20, 2010 at 5:12 PM. Reason : .]

1/20/2010 5:11:07 PM

Quote :

"3 is a new reason, as mention by mambagrl, meddling in non israeli/palestine issues but i dont see that as a direct cause of terrorism, no major terrorist from iran, our help to bin laden was just that, help, he didnt turn on us until we were involved in the gulf war which was unrelated to what went on in afghanistan"

Iran is arguably one of the largest sponsors of terrorism in the world. Hezbollah may not be the big bad guy of the moment, but they are responsible for numerous and massive attacks against Americans.

American support to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan had a tendency to go to the biggest lunatics, which basically gave us the Taliban.

Osama turned on us because we sent troops to Saudi Arabia, at that government's request, to keep other Saddam out. Osama had no more love for Saddam than he did for us.

Quote :

"4 is part of C"

No, it isn't. C is inane. Four refers to the broader issue of western culture in general (and American culture in particular) working its way into new places all over the world, and then becoming a dominant form there. This doesn't just piss off Muslims, it pisses off anyone who sees their longstanding culture replaced by LL Cool J, McDonalds, and "Twilight."

Admittedly, there aren't many cultures that produce people who respond to the cultural issue with terrorism, but when you combine it with the other factors I listed there's a recipe for problems.

1/20/2010 5:25:20 PM

Quote :

"Osama turned on us because we sent troops to Saudi Arabia, at that government's request, to keep other Saddam out. Osama had no more love for Saddam than he did for us."

and to add salt to the wound, Saudi Arabi rejected Osama's assistance with that. I mean who wouldn't when you have half a million troops with cutting edge weaponry vs. Mujahadeen fighters.

1/20/2010 6:34:43 PM

[Edited on January 20, 2010 at 7:03 PM. Reason : fuck it]

1/20/2010 7:00:49 PM

^pretty much spot on, but I will add that during that time the CIA did manage a unilateral Afghan network of fighters in addition to, and behind the back of, Pakistan's ISI. But once the ISI received the money and weapons it was really over to them to see who got what and how much of it. The CIA case officers at the time worked with ISI as a proxy to support the Afghan resistance, but also clandestinely funneled money to its own favorite mujaheddin, like Ahmed Shah Massoud (Northern Alliance), and a few others.

the foreign fighters that flocked to Afghanistan during the 80s were largely funded by various Arab factions of the Muslim Brotherhood and the like and other rich middle eastern Arabs and possibly directly or indirectly by various arab countries' intelligence agencies. Though, to think that the metric shit ton of weapons we threw into Afghanistan for the Afghan fighters didn't make their way to the foreign fighters is dishonest.


[Edited on January 20, 2010 at 7:19 PM. Reason : .]

1/20/2010 7:11:47 PM