The Afghan Strategy

We suppose it is too much to hope that the administration's anti-al Qaeda Afghanistan strategy analysis includes an analysis of why we are targeted by al Qaeda to begin with. Although the counterproductive effect of civilian bombings and other intrusive aspects of our "military footprint" have been duly noted, the rabid rhinoceros in the room, which is the Israeli occupation, continues to be blithely ignored.

For decades, the Israel Lobby-dominated media has made sure that Americans never connect these dots. How many Americans are aware that the Arab oil embargo in the 70's was because of our support of Israel's illegal occupations? Al Qaeda's leader bin Laden keeps trying to wake Americans up, as in his 9/14/09 audiotape, when he reiterated the fact that al Qaeda hates us because we subsidize Israeli atrocities and war crimes.

Israel's military footprint is more ghastly than ours. During their recent scorched-earth invasion of Gaza, besides massacring 1400 and wounding God-knows-how many more, Israel has made sure that all survivors keep suffering, by bulldozing their farmlands, bombing their one operational flour factory, their chicken farms, etc. They might have considered salting Palestinian fields, but their modern equivalent is military uranium residue.

Meanwhile al Qaeda continues to spread around the world. Will the Israel Lobby neocons next be instructing us to occupy Somalia in order to prevent an al Qaeda base there? Americans would like to end our occupations but we are told we must stay indefinitely because of al Qaeda. Yet bin Laden informs us that it is because of our occupations and support of Israel's occupations that we are under attack. It is time to sever relations with the War Crimes State of Israel and bring our troops home.