Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who came to our attention as the conduit for Edward Snowden\u2019s Wikileaks cache, has a theory on why members of the Canadian military have been killed in terror attacks like the one last week in Ottawa. They died for the sins of Canada\u2019s foreign policy.<\/p>\n
Greenwald wrote a piece after the incident in Quebec on Oct. 20, in which two soldiers were run over \u2013 Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent fatally \u2013 in a deliberate attack. Greenwald\u2019s article was rerun at rabble.ca on Oct. 22, apparently posted to the site about the time another attack was taking place on and around Parliament Hill in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is always stunning,\u201d Greenwald wrote, \u201cwhen a country that has brought violence and military force to numerous countries acts shocked and bewildered when someone brings a tiny fraction of that violence back to that country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greenwald shifts blame for the soldiers\u2019 deaths from their murderers to Canadian involvement in Afghanistan, Canada\u2019s newly announced air support for the Western battle against ISIS, and on Canada\u2019s being \u201can enthusiastic partner in some of the most extremist War on Terror abuses perpetrated by the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n
The article has been shared around social media and similar assertions have been made by other commentators.<\/p>\n
It needs to be said that both of these incidents, in which the perpetrators themselves were also killed, were apparently \u201clone-wolf\u201d attacks. Also popping up in social media are demands for greater attention to mental illness in Canada, the implication being that mental instability may have trumped ideology for one or both of these perpetrators. This is an important issue to consider.<\/p>\n
Greenwald anticipates the inevitable comeback to his argument \u2013 that Islamists are not driven by reaction to our foreign policy but by hatred of our values. That is, they hate us not for what we do, but for who we are.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey even invent fairy tales to feed to the population to explain why it happens: they hate us for our freedoms,\u201d wrote Greenwald. \u201cThose fairy tales are pure deceit. Except in the rarest of cases, the violence has clearly identifiable and easy-to-understand causes: namely, anger over the violence that the country\u2019s government has spent years directing at others.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a stupid idea, but it\u2019s simplistic in the extreme. It suggests not only a self-deception about the ideology driving worldwide terror, but an almost understandable, desperate hope for safety: if we just stop provoking the terrorists, they will leave us alone.<\/p>\n
What his position ignores \u2013 though it is shared by many \u2013 is that the perpetrators are fundamentalists, seeking the destruction of the existing order not only in Syria and Iraq, but worldwide. The deceitful fairy tales are those told and believed by those who refuse to acknowledge evil when they see it beheading people on the internet.<\/p>\n
Greenwald\u2019s position, in fact, is a version of the Western colonialist mentality. The actions and worldview of ISIS and other extremists are not born of ideology or theology. No, they are solely a reaction to our actions. It\u2019s all about us. It\u2019s a weirdly imperialist view in its own way.<\/p>\n
But even if he is correct, even if the attacks we saw last week and those endured by other democracies including Israel in recent years, were motivated by government actions and policies, his solution is suicide.<\/p>\n
Even if there were proof positive that terrorists were motivated by our policies, rather than the fact that we like freedom, equality, an after-dinner drink and mixed-gender dancing, the solution would still not be to change our policy.<\/p>\n
For a country to base its foreign policy on whether or not it will be liked or hated by ideologues who scythe off the heads of innocents is a map to self-destruction. The idea that terrorists will target our soldiers and civilians because our government is engaged in far-off conflicts is not completely outlandish, but its corollary \u2013 that we should change our foreign policy to one more agreeable for the worst elements in the world \u2013 is horribly wrong. That is, to use a hackneyed and ridiculed phrase that is nonetheless spot on, how the terrorists win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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