Who’s the terroist, again?

Over the Pentagon’s objections, a federal district judge has ordered the release of Abu Ghraib photographs and videotapes that the Pentagon has been keeping secret from the American people. U.S. Senators who have viewed the material expressed shock and disgust at what they saw, which is saying a lot.

The government claims that disclosure of the materials will incite terrorist actions against Americans.

What?

Wait a minute! I thought the government’s position was that terrorists hate America for its “freedom and values,” not because of the many wrongful acts committed by the U.S. government against people in the Middle East.

Well, given the government’s new position that such wrongful acts as torture, sex abuse, rape, sodomy, and murder have a tendency to get foreigners angry and hateful, thereby leading them to commit terrorism against Americans, then how about such U.S. government actions as:

(1) Longtime support of brutal dictators, such as Saddam Hussein, the Shah of Iran, the rulers of Saudi Arabia, and the current military dictator of Pakistan;

(2) The Persian Gulf intervention, without even the semblance of the constitutionally required congressional declaration of war, which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis;

(3) The intentional destruction of Iraq’s water and sewage treatment plants during the Persian Gulf War, with the specific and expressed knowledge among Pentagon planners that infections and diseases would spread among the Iraqi people;

(4) 12 years of cruel and brutal sanctions against the Iraqi people after the Persian Gulf War, which contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, especially through infection, disease, and malnutrition;

(5) The claim that the deaths of Iraqi children from the U.S. sanctions were “worth it” - that is, worth the attempt to oust Saddam from power and replace him with another U.S.-approved stooge;

(6) The persecution and prosecution of Americans who tried to deliver medicines to the Iraqi people in violation of the cruel and brutal sanctions that were killing their children;

(7) Unconditional military and financial support for the Israeli government;

(8) The enforcement of the “no-fly zones” over Iraq, which were not authorized by either Congress or the UN and which killed more innocent Iraqis;

(9) The stationing of U.S. forces on Islamic holy lands;

(10) The invasion of Afghanistan without the constitutionally required congressional declaration of war, which has resulted in thousands of innocent Iraqis being bombed and killed, without even capturing the primary suspect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Osama bin Laden;

(11) The invasion of Iraq, without the constitutionally required congressional declaration of war and without UN authorization, which has killed and maimed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis, including Iraqi children?

Given the U.S. government’s admission that the disclosure of a few photos and videotapes depicting torture, sex abuse, rape, sodomy, and murder by U.S. troops against a few Iraqis incites terrorism against Americans, isn’t it high time that U.S. officials abandon their ridiculous claim that the 9/11 attacks and other terrorists threats are rooted in hatred for America’s “freedom and values” and instead come clean with the truth - that the real reason for 9/11 and other terrorist threats against Americans is because of the bad things that the U.S. government has done to people overseas, especially in the Middle East?

http://www.fff.org/blog/index.asp