I believe that the 9/11 Commission, while necessary, has missed the forest for the trees; by focusing on the single-event attack, and not on the history of the Western powers’ Middle East and Third World foreign policies.

Pope John Paul II, along with many high-ranking Catholic leaders, has written extensively on how we should fight against terrorism, intelligently and morally, and not simply via repressive and punitive military operations. I quote the Pope as follows: “It is essential that the use of force, even when necessary, be accompanied by a courageous and lucid analysis of the reasons behind terrorist attacks.” One can follow Papal and Holy See views on this, and most vital issues of our day, by reading zenit.org.

In my own study of the Middle East’s history over the past century or so, I have come across some disturbing realities. In reading David Fromkin’s scholarly treatise on the time just after World War I, entitled, “A Peace to End All Peace,” I was quite upset to learn just how much the Western powers and Turkey had meddled immorally in the lives of the Arab and Persian peoples. The European powers, particularly Great Britain, treated the entire Middle East as a mere staging ground for what they called, “The Great Game.” The common good of the majority people was not the ends being sought.

After the War, Britain set up several Kings to rule over new ‘Nations’ which were created along boundaries determined by Britain’s ruling elites. King Feisal was made ruler of Iraq, King Abdullah was given Transjordan, and King Fuad I was placed on the throne of Egypt. The Royal Houses of Hussein and Saud were paid regular subsidies to allow Britain’s imperial economic/political interests to dominate over the other world powers.

Also interesting is Fromkin’s chapter on Britain’s Prime Minister Lloyd George and his extremist Puritan religious beliefs, which are similar to the Christian Zionist fundamentalist Christians of today. George helped begin the program to set up a Jewish dominant state in Palestine, to be an instrument for British strategic interests, as well to fulfill his own beliefs concerning an End Times prophesy.

The British set up headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, using their “Arab Bureau” who had, “ ...an intense belief in Britain’s Imperial Mission -- to run Arab affairs behind a facade of nominal Arab independence.” As another sad footnote, the British simply dropped the idea of an independent Kurdistan -- leaving the poor Kurds to their fate as a despised minority. As oil became the driving force of the global economy, the West’s imperial motives in the Middle East have only increased over time.

Caryle Murphy’s excellent book, Passion for Islam, confirms how violent strains of Islam developed in Egypt due to the majority peoples’ unfavorable dealings with a corrupt class of crony capitalists, who have been seen as working for elite foreign interests over their own native common good.

Looking at the case of Iran, there seems to be a blackout in the US over the history in that country before the year of our embassy takeover in 1979. Why might the average Iranian turn to angry Ayatollahs’ and ‘hate’ America? Stephen Kinzer, a former New York Times journalist, in his book, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, details how the colonial British handed off to the U.S., a policy of secretive undermining of Iran’s democratically-elected leader, Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. The Prime Minister’s sin was his attempt to nationalize Iran’s oil industry – which the UN and World Court agreed was his decision to make. Mossadegh was a fervent nationalist, but not a radical Islamic, and not a communist.

Nevertheless, the CIA orchestrated a successful coup against Iran’s elected leader, and reinstated the corrupt Shah in 1953. The Shah turned Iran’s oil over to the future BP conglomerate, and turned his secret police against his own people, who finally rose up in a rage in that fateful year of 1979, falling back on a violent form of Islam. Does this explain Iranian popular feelings of lingering distrust over American government and business policies? Why doesn’t the average American know about this part of the Iran story?

To finish our look at the Middle East, I would recommend all Americans read Alan Friedman’s 1993 book, Spider’s Web: The Secret History of how the White House Illegally Armed Iraq, and Stephen Shalom’s writings at zmag.org, concerning the complex relationship between Saddam Hussein and the U.S. establishment over the years. We need to inform ourselves, as citizens, because our own government seems to hide behind our patriotism, and we cannot simply assume that the powerful people here in the U.S. are motivated by the common good of the United States.

America’s relationship with the Third World in general is the theme of Noam Chomsky’s latest book, Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance. Chomsky takes a lot of criticism from people who accuse him of being anti-American. The problem with this is that they never seem to question his facts, just his conclusions. Chomsky simply points out how our leaders, of both major parties, have trampled on our nation’s stated moral values, especially in how our American “interests” are code for old neo-colonial behavior in the poorer, weaker nations. I am a believer in the Biblical advice to take the plank out of my own eye, as well as to love my neighbor as myself -- this advice applies to nations as well as individuals.

If America’s leaders are pursuing policies which undermine the common good of foreign lands, then they are also working against the common good of this land. I have a moral rule of thumb for assessing the policies of our government – I picture my own children living in the nightmare places in the world and I ask myself: What would I want the U.S. government, the world’s lone superpower, to do about it? Can we fix all the world’s problems? No, but I dare to ask if our elite leaders, across the spectrum of government and business, are contributing to the world’s pain and suffering, and tempting large numbers of people to hate my children because they are Americans.

My children’s future is tied to the Middle East’s children’s future, and I believe we need wisdom more than testosterone in our policy-maker’s minds and hearts. As a final piece of advice, I would urge all people of goodwill to consider all the themes of Catholic social teachings found at thesocialagenda.org and osjspm.org.

Yours,
Timothy Shipe