by Zach Bigalke

Created on: March 27, 2007   Last Updated: May 16, 2007

John Gibson, host of Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson, wrote about the international backlash to American retaliatory measures following 11 September, "The rest of the world can go to hell. It wasn't attacked. We were." Unfortunately as a journalist, Gibson decided to look simply at the face value of the matter without analyzing the underlying significance of the terrorist actions. The attacks that unfolded on the east coast that morning affected the whole world, an entire way of life and a value system that has deigned to impose itself across the face of the globe.

It would have been far easier to inflict havoc upon the United States, using the technology (commercial airliners) at their disposal, if the terrorists had instead targeted a major oil or natural gas pipeline or refinery. As the northeast autumn gave way to another bleak winter, the destruction of heating-oil reserves would have put a serious drain on American resources and would have driven prices to unbearable highs. But the terrorists had a greater mission than simply to inflict pain and suffering upon the American public. The carefully-coordinated hijacking of four commercial flights by Arab perpetrators was intended to send a message to the entire Western model of society.

The World Trade Center, with its twin towers rising majestically above the chaotic New York skyline, stood as a Rockefeller-concocted monument to American financial might and its gluttonous dominance over international trade and commerce. The Pentagon, across the Potomac River from the heart of American government, is a heavily-fortified structure housing many of the departments that have covertly tampered with elections and governments across the globe over the preceding decades. Between the two, their attack by fundamentalists represented nothing less than a blazing kamikaze glory against the military-industrial complex.

With a long history of colonial oppression by a succession of empires, the people of Arabic lands justifiably associate the current American hegemony with these previous empires. The attacks on 11 September were a provocation by these terrorists to expand the battle across the world and thus legitimize their efforts. When the United States bit the bait, they unknowingly took an action desired by jihadists and overextended their perceived dominance. The American military has covered the globe like too little butter scraped over toast. Neither able to effectively alter the present situation nor remove

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>