Beginning Is Not Only A

In The Islamic World, The U.s. Is Seen In Two Quite Different Ways. One View Recognizes What An Extraordinary Country The U.s. Is.the Other View Is Of The Official United States, The United States Of Armies And Interventions. The United States That In 1953 Overthrew The Nationalist Government Of Mossadegh In Iran And Brought Back The Shah. The United States That Has Been Involved First In The Gulf War And Then In The Tremendously Damaging Sanctions Against Iraqi Civilians. The United States That Is The Supporter Of Israel Against The Palestinians.

These Actions Were Taken With The Support And Financing Of The United States. How Can You Say This Is Part Of U.s. Adherence To International Law And U.n. Resolutions? The Result Is A Kind Of Schizophrenic Picture Of The United States.

Since The Time Of Homer Every European, In What He Could Say About The Orient, Was A Racist, An Imperialist, And Almost Totally Ethnocentric.

Since The 1960s, We Have Seen The Failure Of The Melting Pot Ideology. This Ideology Suggested That Different Historical, Cultural And Socioeconomic Backgrounds Could Be Subordinated To A Larger Ideology Or Social Amalgam Which Is "america." This Concept Obviously Did Not Work, Because Paradoxically America Encourages A Politics Of Contestation.

I Am For Peace. And I Am For A Negotiated Peace. But This Accord Is Not A Just Peace.