Friday, July 11, 2008

THE ISLAMIC THREAT

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY SOUMAYA GHANNOUSHI IN THE GUARDIAN

The Islamic Threat is the creation of American Neo-cons.

That fact alone should serve to convince any thoughtful person that it is utter nonsense.

But if you are unconvinced, here are a few facts to give some real perspective.

The American annual death rate is roughly today 8.27 per 1000 population. With a population of about 300 million people, roughly 2 1/2 million Americans will die this year.

The top causes of death, according to recent historical statistics, will be approximately as follows:

Tobacco 435,000
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity 365,000
Alcohol 85,000
Microbial Agents 75,000
Toxic Agents 55,000
Motor Vehicle Crashes 26,347
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs 32,000
Suicide 30,622
Incidents Involving Firearms 29,000
Homicide 20,308
Sexual Behaviors 20,000

There will be dozens killed by such insignificant events as bicycle accidents. The lingering effects of asbestos will take about 10,000. Sheer medical incompetence will kill many thousands.

What is the expected outcome from terror, of any kind? Zero.

What was the outcome from terror last year? Zero.

Going all the way back to 2001, what was the number owing to terror? Less than 3,000, a totally insignificant fraction of American deaths in that year.

Yet that one over-dramatized event catapulted the United States into an insane and meaningless War on Terror. No one even knows just how many hundreds of billions of dollars will be wasted in total, enough at any rate to help destabilize the American economy.

At the same time, the United States has invaded and occupied two countries, and it regularly threatens two more, Iran and Pakistan. It has murdered over half a million just in Iraq and maimed countless thousands, all while destroying the most advanced economy in the Arab world, one which would have soon reached Western modernity.

It started the human-rights disgraces of Guantanano, Abu Ghraib, and the CIA’s Torture Gulag. It passed horribly repressive laws within the United States.

All for what? Because 19 men, all dead in the act, were responsible for 9/11.

The irony is that the men were Saudis, yet no harm has come to Saudi Arabia. Not only no harm to Saudi Arabia, but Bush and Cheney saw to that members of the Saudi Royal Family living in the U.S. were all safely and secretly shipped home.

Not only that, but the brutal injustices of Israel have received encouragement and support as never before. Invade Lebanon and kill 1,500 civilians? No problem. Drop a million cluster-bomb bomblets to cripple and kill for years to come? No problem. Lay siege to Gaza because you don’t like its government? No problem. Kill more than 400 people in Gaza while you do this? No problem.

And the war goes on, a war against, not an army or a regime, but against method and or a set of beliefs. It is a War against Sanity.