Walter Kish

Yesterday was September 11, and like most North Americans I was moved and touched by the emotion surrounding the events commemorating the tragic events of last year when terrorism struck at the very core of not only America’s financial centre but, perhaps more importantly, its sense of confidence, power and security. No matter how often one sees those horrific images of death and destruction, the calculated cruelty and inhumanity always triggers powerful visceral emotions that combine fear, horror, anger and sadness.

The trauma has left a gaping wound, and resulted in an angry America mobilizing its forces as well as those of its allies around the world in a crusade against terrorism. The death of some three thousand innocent Americans will not go either unlamented or unavenged. I wholeheartedly support the US-led global effort against terrorism of every stripe. And yet, one aspect of all this troubles me. It is epitomized by a phrase I have often hear voiced by many Americans in the aftermath of this tragedy, namely "Why do they hate us so?" Why, indeed!

To understand, one must look at other great "terrorist" tragedies in recent history. In 1994 in Rwanda, political instability led to a reign of terror by the dominant Hutu tribe in which some 800,000 of the minority Tutsi tribe were systematically slaughtered. The United Nations and the US stood by, looked on, issued a lot of platitudes and did nothing.

Not long afterward, the disinte-gration of Yugoslavia led to a form of terror now commonly known as "ethnic cleansing". The ensuing anarchy was exploited by "war criminals" on all sides, resulting in the deaths of what is now estimated to be more than 200,000 innocent people. Mass executions, rape and pillage were the order of the day. Although the UN and the US eventually intervened, the efforts were too little and too late. As always, there was a great reluctance to "get involved".

It is estimated that since the end of the Gulf War, more than a million people, mostly innocent civilians, have died in Iraq, largely as a result of the cruelty and oppression of Saddam Hussein’s regime, though the US-led blockades and embargoes have had a contributing effect. It is perhaps telling that it was not until three thousand innocent Americans died, that Bush was persuaded that Saddam is a serious "terrorist" threat that must be removed as soon as possible.

Throughout most of the twentieth century, the US covertly, and sometimes openly supported a motley collection of unsavoury Central and South American dictators who ruled primarily by imposing a continual state of terror on their impoverished populations. Military death squads, disappearances and the ruthless suppression of any kind of dissent were essentially winked at by a succession of American administrations. Statistics are uncertain, but few would questions that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, perished.

Going back a little further in history, at the end of World War II, the US and its allies actively co-operated in the forcible repatriation of millions of former "Soviet" refugees, knowing full well that most were returning to either certain death or the cruelty of the GULAG. During the 1930s, the world and the US stood by while some 10 million Ukrainians were systematically starved to death or disappeared into the maw of Stalin’s killing machine. This great "terror" was virtually ignored. After all, these were only Ukrainians being killed.

The US is a great, unequalled global power, perhaps the only true one still left. To many, myself included, it still is the world’s best hope and protector of freedom and democracy. Nonetheless, the answer to the original question "Why do they hate us so?" is obvious – because most of the world, particularly the poor and oppressed, perceive that America only values American lives. It is only when Americans treat the death of every innocent Afghani, or Bosnian, or Tutsi, or Ukrainian, or Columbian, or Palestinian or Jew in the same tragic light as the death of one American, that they will have the respect, support and even affection of the worlds teeming masses. The principle that "All men are created equal" should apply equally strong beyond the territorial boundaries of the USA. As the poet John Donne once said, "Each man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind…Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee".