Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad and those whom the mad wish to destroy, they first demonize. Our history is replete with the damned "niggers, red Injuns, spics, dagos, wogs, wops, gooks and sand niggers", whom we have demonized before decimating. There is justification for retaliation after this despicable act of terror, but the American public is ignorant of the atrocities, we have committed around the world over the course of two hundred years. It is important to realize that we sowed the wind in Afghanistan by creating these fanatic Mujahedin with the help of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and are now reaping the whirlwind with this rain of terror, which is a blowback in CIA colloquial lingo.

Israel was created to partially atone for the silent ignoring of the holocaust by Western powers. If Germany was the great sinner, why was Israel not carved out of it? Western powers wanted it further removed from their vicinity and the Arabs were a subjugated people with no say. The claim of it being the historical Jewish homeland is ridiculous and on that basis why don't we return the Americas to the natives whose domicile persisted for tens of thousands of years, prior to our usurping the land. I am not on a tirade against Israel and if it is the informed choice of the American people to support it unreservedly, then let them know the reasons for it and let them be informed that such anger in the Arabs is likely to engender terrorism, which they must be prepared to face. If the rationale is that Israel is a democracy, then why have we propped up dictators, monarchs and tyrants all over the world and particularly the Middle East? This shortsighted policy is the reason for the current unabated hostility of Iran. They are unlikely to overlook our past imposition of a corrupt, tyrannical monarchy and similar blowbacks are waiting to happen in Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, when their unrepresentative hypocritical regimes topple. It is only a matter of time. 

Afghanistan is a notoriously fractious society of patchwork ethnic groups strung together in an uneasy truce. Various factions constantly shift allegiance without principle and predictability. Anyone who has read the book by John Waller (CIA official) "Beyond the Khyber Pass", a well documented chronicle of the great game and the period of the first Afghan war or has followed the adventures of Hekmatiyar, Dostum and Masood in the current era, would know, that there are no good guys in any of the factions vying for power and choosing any or all of them, is a repetition of our imposing the collaborators of Japanese rule and atrocities on South Korea or the Diem regime in Vietnam. We all remember what those led to. The conniving hacks of the media keep putting out the poser, why do they hate us, especially since we are so good and democratic? They do not explain that our unprincipled policies around the world are meant to promote our profligate lifestyle, and those who are helpless, transfer their anger to us. We claim that we went into Iraq to restore the legitimate government in Kuwait and to protect Saudis. Kuwait did not allow women to vote, discriminates against foreigners, has no freedom of religion or speech. Saudi Arabia has all these handicaps and does not allow women to drive a car or go out unaccompanied by a male relative. What rationale or principle would allow us to prop up or protect these archaic tyrannies, fossilized in time. If we need a reliable supply of oil at a reasonable price, should we not allow democratic regimes to take root and if bullying is necessary, twist their arms, rather than set up puppets, enriching themselves at the cost of the country and its people. Have we forgotten, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala? We are propping up a military dictatorship in a failed state like Pakistan, which has mid-wifed the birth of Taliban and promotes many terrorist groups. Contrary to the lies that our media spreads, a majority of Pakistanis support the Taliban and hate America. A few corrupt rich elite are in favor of USA and Musharaf is doing it for the money and because we lit a fire under him.

Everyone keeps mouthing these platitudes that Islam is a peaceful religion, which is a blatant lie. This revisionist false-speak is like saying the Spanish Inquisition was a benign reformist agency. Islam was propagated by the sword, allows betrayal of infidels as Musharaf explained, in why he chose to side with USA. He said he was taking a leaf out of history as in Mohammed's alliance with the Jews and his subsequent betrayal and slaughter of them. He claimed to be choosing the lesser of two evils. Islamic Jihad allows the slaughter of infidels, merely because they do not believe in Islam and to propagate the faith. It is a religion, which promises a large supply of never aging virgins in paradise. Can anyone name a respectable religion, which tempts people to kill other innocent persons of a different faith, by dangling carnal pleasures as a spiritual reward?

The truth is Jesus was trying to reform Judaism and incidentally began a good decent religion unintentionally. Christianity is something good, which has been misused and practiced mainly in the breach by many of its adherents, but this allowed them not to be bogged down in the swamps of dogma. Islam on the other hand was a bad idea of an illiterate, scheming, violent man, whose ambitions were more temporal and its history is replete with internecine quarrels and succession by assassination. It still remains intolerant and has its slogan (also quoted by Sikhism-an amalgam of Islam and Hinduism)-It must rule or it will rebel. Thus where the Muslims ruled other religions were tolerated and their adherents taxed extra and treated as second class citizens. 

Where Muslims were a minority, they fomented discord and insurrections. Examples in British India include the senseless agitations of the Muslims for the Khilafat movement to protect the Ottoman Sultan as Caliph, while the Turks under Ataturk were trying to create a non-religious state. This fear of transnational religious allegiance is what made Americans hesitate in electing a Catholic president. The second example is the insistence of the Muslims on a separate bifurcated Pakistan even though the people of this anomalous schizoid state were linguistically and ethnically identical to their neighboring counterparts in India. Muslims are misfits in secular states because if they are true believers, then their allegiance to Islam, must exceed that to the country. The more educated or secular are not true to Islam and while they may be like attenuated viral cultures, they still carry the potential to mutate into a form, capable of a lethal epidemic.

Finally, we mourn the tragic deaths of all our people, because we feel for them, miss them, but they were unfortunate victims and not heroes or martyrs. They did not sacrifice themselves, but were sacrificed to the policies of our government and the rage and viciousness of the terrorists. I am not necessarily implying that our policies are wrong or need to be changed. That is the price they paid, so that we can live in our current affluent lifestyle and we owe them a debt, which is not to lie anymore by calling things by wrong names and hiding the facts and realities from the voters. All of us will pay with delays, inconveniences and anxieties and must be prepared for it. As Milton said, "They also serve, who only stand and wait".