Muslims and the Empire

Muslims and the Empire
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Monday, November 29, 2010

Do you want to know what the real crime of the Muslims was, in the minds of American statists?

It is that Muslims haven't quietly acquiesced to what the U.S. Empire has done to them. If Muslims had meekly submitted to the will of the Empire like, say, the people of Granada and Panama did, everything today would be hunky dory. We wouldn't have to be worrying about terrorism and all the tyranny that has come with the war on terrorism.

Consider Granada. During the Reagan administration, Granada was ruled by a socialist regime that was aligning itself with Fidel Castro's communist regime in Cuba. Despite the fact that Granada is an independent country, the Empire invaded Granada, ousted the socialist regime, and installed a pro-Empire regime in its stead.

What was the response of the citizenry of Granada? They meekly accepted the change and embraced the Empire and the new order of things. No terrorism. Just passive acquiescence. Thus, there was no need for the Empire to brutalize, torture, intimidate, or kill the people of Granada, especially with a long-term occupation of the country.

It wasn't any different when the Empire invaded Panama after the president of Panama, Antonio Noriega, a former asset of the CIA, declared his independence from the Empire. The Empire invaded the country, took Noriega into custody for drug-law violations, and shipped him back to the United States for punishment. The Empire installed a new, compliant regime in his stead.

The response of the Panamanian people was pretty much the same as that in Granada. No insurgency. No terrorist retaliation. Just passivity and acceptance.

In the mind of the statist, that's precisely what Muslims all over the world should have done. That was their duty ­ to meekly accept the pre-9/11 killing of countless Iraqis during the Persian Gulf War, the intentional destruction of Iraq's water and sewage facilities with the intent of spreading infectious illnesses among the populace, the 11 years of one of the most brutal economic embargoes in history, the intentional killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, publicly announcing that the deaths of the Iraqi children were "worth it," the no-fly zones over Iraq, the stationing of U.S. troops near Islamic holy lands, and, of course, the unconditional foreign aid to the Israeli government.

In the mind of the statist, all that is simply a given. For the statist, the Empire exists and will always exist, and it can do whatever it wants to people anywhere in the world. After all, everyone knows that the troops bring freedom, democracy, and peace to the world, sometimes making great personal sacrifices to do so. How dare Muslims or anyone else object to what the troops are doing for the people of the world. They should be thanking the troops. What ingrates.

No one, and certainly not Muslims, is supposed to ever question the existence of the Empire itself or the things it does to people of other countries. The Empire is good. The Empire cares about people. It delivers food and supplies to people during hurricanes, just as it provides Americans with their retirement, health care, education, food, housing, and unemployment compensation. The Empire is the provider, the protector, the peace-giver.

The invasion of Afghanistan has killed, maimed, and exiled countless people, most of whom had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. The invasion of Iraq has killed, maimed, and exiled countless people, none of whom had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks. Don't forget the torture, sex abuse, rape, and executions at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. Gitmo and kangaroo military tribunals. Kidnapping and rendition.

The response of the Muslim world? It was not the same as that of the people of Granada and Panama. Both before and after 9/11, the reaction was anger, which developed into rage, which has led to the constant threat of terrorist retaliation, along with the endless "war on terrorism."

And that's what has angered American statists. "It's their religion!" they cry. "They just want to conquer the world. They hate us for our freedom and values. They hate our Empire."

But deep down, the real reason American statists are angry is their belief that the Muslim world had a moral duty to react to what the Empire did to them with the same meekness and passivity that characterized the people of Granada and Panama. Statists feel that the Muslim world should have simply accepted the inevitable and embraced the Empire, kneeling and prostrating toward Washington, the heart of the Empire,and praying the mantra of American statists: "The Empire is good. The Empire is caring. The Empire is freedom and free enterprise. Long live the Empire!"

http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2010-11-29.asp