[mujahedeen], By The Way, Don't

Uninformed And Yet Open To Appeals For Justice As They Are, Americans Are Capable Of Reacting As They Did To The Anc Campaign Against Apartheid, Which Finally Changed The Balance Of Forces Inside South Africa.

This [terrorists Attacks On 9/11] Was Part Of Nothing. It Was A Leap Into Another Realm - The Realm Of Crazy Abstractions And Mythological Generalities, Involving People Who Have Hijacked Islam For Their Own Purposes. It's Important Not To Fall Into That Trap And To Try To Respond With A Metaphysical Retaliation Of Some Sort.

To Say That We're Going To End Countries Or Eradicate Terrorism, And That It's A Long War Over Many Years, With Many Different Instruments, Suggests A Much More Complex And Drawn-out Conflict For Which, I Think, Most Americans Aren't Prepared.

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. Every Arab Or Muslim That I Know Is Tremendously Interested In The United States. Many Of Them Send Their Children Here For Education. Many Of Them Come Here For Vacations. They Do Business Here Or Get Their Training Here. The Other View Is Of The Official United States, The United States Of Armies And Interventions.

Every Empire, However, Tells Itself And The World That It Is Unlike All Other Empires, That Its Mission Is Not To Plunder And Control But To Educate And Liberate.