OpEdNews - Page 3 of Article: A New War Frenzy

Even today, the current Bush administration is blocking attempts to bring another anti-communist terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles, to justice over his alleged role in blowing a civilian Cuban airliner out of the sky, also in 1976 when George Bush Sr. was CIA director. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Bush Family's Terrorism Test."]

Cheney's speech also ignored more recent acts of terrorism committed by non-Muslims. For instance, there was no reference in his speech to home-grown right-wing terrorists like Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted and executed for blowing up the federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.

For that matter, Cheney offered no self-criticism of the "shock and awe" violence that the Bush administration inflicted on Iraq, killing thousands of civilians in a war launched over false claims about Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction.

For Vice President Cheney and Ambassador Gillerman, these examples don't seem to count, presumably because the perpetrators weren't Muslim.

Not Terrorism

A second point undermining Cheney's argument was that some of the cases he cited weren't acts of terrorism.

In the case of the 1983 bombing in Beirut, for instance, the attackers targeted the Marine barracks because the Reagan-Bush administration's mission creep had led U.S. forces to intervene militarily against some Muslim elements in the civil war then raging in Lebanon. Muslim villages were even shelled by a U.S. warship. So, while the killing of the Marines was horrible, it wasn't terrorism.

Similarly, the "Black Hawk Down" incident in the Somali city of Mogadishu wasn't an act of terrorism; it was a battle between U.S. Special Forces units and militia troops loyal to a local warlord. Indeed, the Somali militia was reacting to a surprise attack by the American troops, not vice versa.

What Cheney appeared to be saying was that anytime American troops are killed in a conflict whatever the factual circumstances, they are the victims of "terrorism" - with all that word's emotional and propagandistic value. Conversely, acts ordered by President Bush and U.S. allies can never be considered "terrorism" whatever the facts may suggest.

There has been a similar blurring of lines in regard to attacks by Iraqi insurgents against U.S. occupation forces in Iraq. While some incidents, such as the destruction of mosques and the killing of civilians, do constitute terrorism, bombs directed at U.S. troops as they patrol Iraqi territory are military ambushes or sabotage, not terrorism.

While some Americans might want Iraqi insurgents who are responsible for killing U.S. troops to bear the opprobrium of the disgraced title of "terrorist," the selective application of the word - as favored by Cheney and Gillerman - carries its own danger.

Since U.S. policy forbids negotiations with "terrorists," peace talks with Iraqi insurgents would be barred. That, in turn, could lead to an indefinite war in Iraq and vastly more death and destruction on all sides.

That might serve the goals of some neoconservative ideologues - and ironically the interests of Osama bin-Laden - but it is almost certainly not in the interests of U.S. troops in Iraq - nor of the American people.

Further, when a loaded charge like "terrorism" is leveled against a specific ethnic or religious group - but not against others who have engaged in comparable practices - that kind of selective outrage is generally called bigotry or racism.

Those ugly tendencies have been part of many war fevers in the past. Now, as the Bush administration prepares the American people for even a wider war in the Middle East, this pernicious form of bigotry will surely play a big part again. [For more, see Consortiumnews.com's "The Abyss Beckons."]

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