Blaming the Muslims
It is perhaps human nature to seek to blame someone else for one’s own personal failings. But what is possibly only a misdemeanor in personal interactions becomes rather more serious when entire nations and races are systematically and comprehensively blamed for the failures of other nations to comprehend simple truths. I am, of course, referring to the disastrous foreign policy that we Americans have endured for the past 11 years, which is coming home to roost now in places such as Libya and Syria.
Consider what we have been hearing repeated over and over again about the Middle East and other trouble spots. American bullying, preemption, and a policy of might makes right have not been the problem; some ignorant folks just dislike us because of our freedom. The United States is “exceptional,” which means that it should set the standards for the “free world” and even the not-so-free world, whether they all like it or not. Washington has the right to intervene militarily anywhere in the world if there is even the slightest chance that there is some kind of threat lurking.
Neither President Barack Obama nor Gov. Mitt Romney has dared to say the truth, which is that the past 11 years have been disastrous for the United States because of a gross overreaction to a terrorism problem that we helped create. That overreaction has let to one unnecessary major war in Iraq that has helped bankrupt the country while also killing more than 100,000 people who had nothing to do with any threat against the United States. We have even punished the children of those we have killed: witness the stunning rise in birth defects caused by depleted uranium in parts of Iraq where the fighting was most intense.
America’s lashing out has also led to a prolonged slaughter in Afghanistan, which will be worse off when Washington leaves than it was when the U.S. military and CIA arrived. Elsewhere, the U.S. footprint is heavier than ever, with drone operations becoming the warmaking du jour in Africa and Asia. This week we have learned that the CIA is seeking more drones to extend its operations. It seems that the poor folks at Langley actually had to shift some drones from Pakistan to Yemen because they just did not have enough to go around. For those who care, it marks the beginning of the end of the CIA as an intelligence organization and its transition into an international outside-the-Geneva-Conventions killing machine under Director David Petraeus.
At home, the foreign wars have also had an impact. Drones have arrived in America while whole sections of the U.S. Constitution have been abandoned by “temporary” legislation to fight terrorists. Mitt and Barack are both intelligent men and they know perfectly well what is happening, but they will not say anything about it, as it would ruin the narrative that the United States is always good and noble. If only those damned Muslims just didn’t hate our freedom so much.
Make no mistakes that Muslims are the target of American wrath, even if it is largely unstated. The Republican Party is obsessed with bigger defense budgets to fight more wars in Muslim lands and, domestically, making illegal the greatly feared spread of Shariah law. Shariah, for what it’s worth, is the criminal code in only two Islamic countries: Saudi Arabia and Iran. Most other majority-Muslim states use a version of British common law or Roman law. In the United States the threat of any state adopting Shariah is nonexistent, unless one believes the content of the GOP platform.
Opinion polls suggest that Americans do not like Muslims very much. No surprise there, considering the steady diet of negative commentary. On the New York City subway one can learn from posters that Palestinians are savages while Israelis are civilized. For many years, the word “Islamic” has been used in much of the media as an obligatory prefix to the word “terrorist.”
No other group in the U.S. since the Communist purges of the 1950s has been singled out as much as Muslims as the enemy within. Congressman Peter King of New York has held a number of hearings on “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and That Community’s Response.” Muslims have been targeted as a group by the New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The young Muslims who suddenly find themselves with a new friend in the form of an FBI informant eventually are entrapped into a confession or plea bargain and sent off to jail, with each arrest heralded as a major terrorism case. That many of those cases relied on an informant who offered the suspect a phony gun or bomb and then provided encouragement to commit a terrorist act is eminently clear if one reads the news accounts of the arrest and trial. If there is any evidence that American Muslims are not law-abiding, I have not seen it, and I suspect that if such a statistic were actually compiled it would demonstrate the opposite.
More recently, some Republicans have called for eliminating foreign aid for countries that don’t like us very much and appear reluctant to support our policies. All those countries are, of course, Islamic, and the emails circulating to make the case show burning cars and buildings. All that is needed is cameos of angry-looking men in beards to seal the case. The what-have-you-done-for-me-lately argument fails to take into account what exactly the U.S. has been playing at in those countries for the past 50 years, supporting dictators and turning a blind eye to egregious violations of human rights.
And when the countries in question shake off the shackles of dictatorship and elect a government that takes its religion seriously, there is dismay in the post-Enlightenment West. The development is referred to as a problem that has to be closely monitored by the wise leaders in Washington and Brussels. What is wrong with those people? Don’t they want our freedom? For a Muslim, one’s religion shapes the relationship with the state. It is not firewalled from it and conditions how one behaves when in office, but the distinction apparently escapes those who are shaping our policies in the White House.
There are, of course, a number of political objectives to the Muslim bashing. A large, undifferentiated threat keeps the military industrial complex happy. For the friends of Israel, since Muslims are savages and terrorists, it means that negotiating with them in any serious way or treating them as human beings is a waste of time. For the politicians who spout an anti-Muslim agenda, it keeps them in the limelight and they see an opportunity to become a player in foreign policy. The real lesson should be that the turning on Muslims is not necessarily a problem with those who practice Islam but rather a problem with us. We are the ones who have created the enemy and we are the ones who should have the sense to realize that it is our policies and actions that have poisoned relationships all around the world, and not just in Islamic countries. Will Mitt Romney or Barack Obama someday express that reality? Somehow I don’t think so.
Read more by Philip Giraldi
- Obama’s Report Card – October 17th, 2012
- A Dream Dies, but the Beat Goes On – October 10th, 2012
- Why I Dislike Israel – October 3rd, 2012
- The Ubiquitous New Yorker – September 26th, 2012
- Rumors of Wars – September 19th, 2012
mickperry
October 25th, 2012 at 12:32 am
Or to put it into a Christian perspective; love your enemies, after all, you made them.
Why Do the American People Support Such a Buffoonish Government? (and other news…) » Scott Lazarowitz's Blog
October 25th, 2012 at 3:57 am
[...] Philip Giraldi: Blaming the Muslims [...]
Boston Joe
October 25th, 2012 at 5:57 am
Well said Phil.
The question remains of what will move our country away from this mindset for it is all too easy to ignore, accept and even promote the bloodletting in other countries until it arrives at our own doorstep.
john
October 25th, 2012 at 6:16 am
{in Iraq that has helped bankrupt the country while also killing more than 100,000 people who had nothing to do with any threat against the United States.}
Why don't you tell people the correct number Iraqi killed by the United States in Iraq. More than 1000000 peoplenot 100000 were killed by the United state and Britain in Iraq. Please don't belittle number of deaths you have killed. Total number of killed Iraqi people:
650000 were killed as a result of illegal sanction which is WAR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
200000 that you killed when you invaded Kuwit
More than 1000000 when you invaded Iraq illegaly. yet, non of US war criminal has been arrested so can be shipped to brothel house you name ICC.
As long as Americans kept gullible and ignorant then you will get more war criminals and professional killers as 'president'. People are fed up, fed up, fed up, fed…
Kelley V
October 25th, 2012 at 6:48 am
Phil, you are so right-on. The front page of Washington Post today features a "profile" on CT director John Brennan that, when one peels back all the journalistic embellishments, like scene setting and human interest hoo-ha, is a story about a foreign kill program directed by one unelected, unconfirmed White House foot soldier, extra-judiciously, in secret and without public accountability. The establishment media has been far too compliant in re-packaging truth and consequences and thus, public acceptance of the miserable foreign policy reality you are writing about. Thank you for swimming against the tide.
Margaret
October 25th, 2012 at 6:53 am
Excellent article!! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it Mr. Giraldi and I am happy that you are one of the few bravely standing up to the propaganda.
Bruce Richardson
October 25th, 2012 at 7:28 am
Brilliant analysis and articulation…you are the best Mr. Giraldi!
Another tidbit of information that never appears in the main-street press is the fact that Osama bin Laden was in a hospital in Rawalpindi days before and following 9/11. While there for kidney dialysis, he was receiving official US Government visitors. At the time he was wanted for bombings in Africa…why then did not the US arrest and or assassinate him at that time? Also, while in Kandahar in 1997, the Taliban Foreign Minister advised me that they had on numerous occassions offerred up OBL to US officials who ignored their overtures. And then there is that Summer of 2001, Berlin conference, where months before 9/11, Pakistan's Secretary Niaz Niak was told by US State Dept. officials that "we will attack Afghanistan before the snow flies in October."
However obvious an investigation and public airing is needed, don't look for this information to appear any time soon in the mainstream media a.k.a. the Government Ministry of Information.
Thank God for knowledgeable and courageous patriots like Mr. Phil Giraldi.
Ali Mohammed
October 25th, 2012 at 8:32 am
Thanks, Mr Phil Garibaldi.
I believe that Muslim countries should stop getting US AID once and for all.
Only will then they be not under any US obligations and only then will they go through hardships and have the real incentive to come up on their own.
But than Iran is not under any US obligation, it is on their own, yet it gets beaten up consistently by US (and Israel).
Some conundrum we have. hmmmm..
necessary discussion
October 25th, 2012 at 9:07 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embed…!
Bill Clinton slams Arafat for rejecting peace.
Zia Ahad
October 25th, 2012 at 9:08 am
Thank you, Phil, for setting the record straight. When your brave 'mujahideen' fighting Soviet-occupation turn into al-Qaeda terrorists, it does call for some serious introspection – not the buffoonery writ large in the eight dark years of the Bush presidency, the wanton killings and destruction of two countries and the perverse smear campaign against the Muslim countries. Small wonder that the US is viewed today as little more than an AIPAC-run slave state, condemned to follow the bidding of its masters in Tel Aviv. Sadly, its bankrupt economy is condemned to bankroll the sole apartheid regime that is the Zionist occupation in Palestine. Indeed, neither Obama nor Romney dare face the truth. It takes a Phil Giraldi to expound it in plain English. Who knows, someday Americans may yet break out of the Zionist shackes and regain their sovereignty.
Phil Giraldi
October 25th, 2012 at 9:37 am
John – I took the lowest possible figure. You are absolutely correct that the true figure might be closer to one million.
GeriatrikSk8r
October 25th, 2012 at 9:48 am
Well said Phil, it's all right on target. The problem? Americans don't care about all the stuff you wrote, even though it's true. They just don't care.
Dr.Khan
October 25th, 2012 at 10:01 am
Ali M.Muslim countries do not get US-AIDS,it is the installed puppets who acquire riches for the mercinery services rendered at the cost of the sufferings of those Muslim states.Pakistan Establishment and that includes all crooks and cronies get the blood money and the public pays it back with its blood spilled all over.Just simple correction sir.
Dr.Khan
October 25th, 2012 at 10:14 am
Phil, I wonder if this unbaised Article will make any difference when I wake up tomorrow morning??
rosemerry
October 25th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Thanks for the article. Americans just have to have enemies; waging wars and selling arms are their few successful ventures, besides imprisoning a large part of the population in the Homeland. Once "Communism taking over the globe" was removed from power, it did not take long to find a new enemy. Who will be next, when all the Muslim militants have been killed??
wars r u.s.
October 25th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
Great article. Depressing, but great.
Mike
October 25th, 2012 at 6:28 pm
Mick….what you just said should be plastered everywhere. I'm saving that line. Awesome!
mark g.
October 25th, 2012 at 10:50 pm
Why do they hate us? They hate us for our deeds.
Just ask the Muslims and Christians who lived in Palestine before it became a JEWS ONLY country.
Contrary to the Zio-American narrative, it's not juts Muslims–but all non-Jews–who are unwelcome in America's favorite Zionist 'democracy'.
david
October 26th, 2012 at 6:51 am
good article.
William
October 26th, 2012 at 10:53 am
You wrote, "It is perhaps human nature to seek to blame someone else for one’s own personal failings." Yes, humans do do that. They tend to use their own characters as a standard by which to measure and judge others. You went on, "But what is possibly only a misdemeanor in personal interactions becomes rather more serious when entire nations and races are systematically and comprehensively blamed for the failures of other nations to comprehend simple truths." Americans because of their culture and history, believe in their own "exceptionalism". Thus, what Americans do is good and right because it is Americans who do it. Then what is done in resistance to American deeds and policies, is by logical extension, bad, wrong and evil. You concluded the first paragraph, "I am, of course, referring to the disastrous foreign policy that we Americans have endured for the past 11 years, which is coming home to roost now in places such as Libya and Syria." The world has suffered it for much more than 11 years, and not just in the Middle East but in Africa, Asia and South America as well.
chill1184
October 27th, 2012 at 7:21 am
This is pretty much a real life version of the Two-Minutes of Hate