The Elephant in the Room: Just don't mention Foreign Policy!

punditman says...

Punditman has never been all that interested in trying to figure out the root causes of terrorism, specifically, “jihadism” or “Islamic terrorism.” Clearly, the reasons are historically based, complex, multifaceted, controversial and infinitely debatable. While the research and ideological infighting is interesting, Punditman recognizes the phenomenon as the obvious threat that it is and is therefore interested in supporting actions that don’t make it worse while opposing those that do—such as invading Muslim countries and killing Muslim kids. A simple and slipshod approach, perhaps, but no more feeble-minded or intellectually lazy than some of our esteemed mainstream commentators.  

In a recent Globe and Mail commentary, Margaret Wente attempts to tackle domestic terrorism, global jihad and Canadian foreign policy. Uh oh. Punditman always knows what is coming when she ventures outside her soapbox’s comfort zone: shallow analysis supporting the neo-con status quo.

She does not disappoint. As always, she makes a valid point or two. Wente notes that terrorism suspect Dr. Khurman Sher, one of the suspects arrested last week in Canada on terrorism charges is, "not a hate-filled product of poverty and disadvantage. He’s not even a second-class citizen...Instead, Dr. Sher’s the product of Canada’s uniquely successful multicultural meritocracy—a homegrown, ball-hockey-playing, fun-loving fellow who zipped through one of the toughest med schools in the country and made fun of religious Muslims on Canadian Idol. 

In other words, just a regular guy who happens to be Muslim—and a successful one too. But I beg to differ on one point: he must hate something. Wente continues,” The depressing truth is that radicalized Muslims in the West often work in medicine, engineering or computer science. According to terrorism expert Marc Sageman, they’re typically highly educated family men. They’re quite sane. And they may not even be particularly religious."

Quite sane. Not particularly religious (and darned if punditman didn't always think that docs, engineers and computer geeks should be required to take more ethics courses to avoid turning into bomb-making mad scientists).

What could possibly be making these Muslim men so secretly angry that they would want to kill their fellow Canadians? Well, for Wente, it has little to do with Canadian or Western foreign policy. Moreover, those that point to this elephant in the room are to be dismissed and dissed: "Some people have the answer. It’s our foreign policy, stupid! If only we stopped waging war in Afghanistan, kowtowing to the imperialist Americans and sucking up to Israel, then people wouldn’t get so riled up they’d want to blow up Parliament. “The solution is … to stop being in denial that there is no connection between the wars we wage and the terrorist mayhem that they trigger,” pronounced the Toronto Star’s Haroon Siddiqui (among others). In other words, it, too, is our fault." 

No, he never said terror plots are our fault; Siddiqui merely makes the same connection that many security experts make. For instance, in 9-11’s aftermath, the late Bill Christison, former Senior CIA officer, outlined six root causes of terrorism, all connected in some way to US foreign policy. It's a complex, interconnected world out there. But the more she delves into it, the more Wente gets downright befuddling. "The trouble is, lots of people hate our foreign policy. Some of them even go to Afghanistan to fight on the other side. These people are usually Muslims who’re convinced they’re engaged in a worldwide war of jihad. " 

Then Wente goes seriously off the rails. "And I suspect that our foreign policy has far less to do with inciting their murderous fantasies than does the seductive ideology of Islamism–widely available via the Internet and disseminated through radical Muslim groups at many of our finest universities. Far too many young Muslim Canadians, especially Pakistanis, are being whipped up into a frenzy to hate the very society that sustains them." 

That's an interesting "suspicion." But reporters should not "suspect." They should dig up facts. For example, last Thursday, RCMP Chief Supt. Serge Therriault, head of criminal operations for the capital region, explained at an Ottawa news conference that police were forced to arrest these latest terror suspects when they learned that funds were about to be transferred from Canada for weapons to attack western coalition forces in … wait for it … Afghanistan! Of all places. But forget about foreign policy or Afghanistan because Wente "suspects" otherwise. She then goes on to blame domestic Muslim communities for not doing enough to stop the brainwashing of their youth (presumably in mosques, universities and on the internet) but then cites one religious Muslim man in Toronto who runs programs aimed at deradicalizing Muslim youth. Fair enough.

But Punditman "suspects" that these latest terrorism suspects have seen pictures of dead Iraqi and Afghan children killed by Western bombs and they know of US army death squads and Predator drones that routinely kill innocent civilians. Punditman "suspects" that they know of the blind spot in our media when it comes to war crimes and a generally passive Western populace who acquiesce in the invasion and occupation of Muslim lands. Punditman does not know if these terror suspects are "religious" or not or if they are much interested in violently reestablishing the caliphate or have fantasies about instating Sharia law in Canada. Time may tell. But punditman does "suspect" that they want to lash out because violence begets violence. Unfortunately, Wente refuses to take off her blinders long enough to at least acknowledge this plain reality.

Instead, by attempting to debunk the Western foreign policy is a factor in terrorism argument, Wente ends up in  la la land. Her "logic" goes something like this: many Muslims hate our foreign policy but domestic terror plots have little to do with our foreign policy. Instead, seductive Islamism simply whips these well adjusted successful, assimilated Muslim men into a frenzy. So they hate us, because they are whipped into a frenzy to hate us. Punditman "suspects" this is what she was actually trying to say.