Why America? The people who pulled off the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have not published a manifesto explaining their motives, but from their actions several assumptions can be made. (Terrorism - Targets).

For many weeks after the attacks of September 11, Americans were asking themselves "Why do they hate us so much?" The reasons look to be very complicated.

The world's only superpower is the most obvious target, and there's nothing new about that. When the Romans ruled the known world two thousand years ago they were the targets of attacks. The British Empire dominated the world for many decades; it provoked anger among those over whom it held sway. Nobody likes to live under the occupation of foreign soldiers.

Today, it's the Americans' turn to be the target. U.S. soldiers do not strut along the streets of conquered states, but huge numbers of people around the world have the sense that they live under U.S. occupation of a different sort.

Over the years that the U.S. has dominated the globe, it has propped up many corrupt and brutal governments. A short list would include: Sani Abacha of Nigeria, Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua, Shah Reza Pahlavi of Iran, Ferdinand Marcos of The Philippines, Suharto of Indonesia, and enough generals and colonels in South America and elsewhere to stock a fair-sized army.

Washington has supported these dictators because they supported America's foreign policy goals - containment of the power of the Soviet Union before it collapsed, and the protection of U.S. business and economic interests. Unfortunately, there were a lot of unintended consequences to come out of America's actions. Among them, was the fact that the ordinary people in most of the countries the U.S. buttressed suffered.

* They lived in poverty because resources and other wealth were stolen by corrupt governments;

* They lived in fear because their human rights were routinely violated by leaders who did not tolerate opposition; and,

* They lived in hopelessness because they had no power to change their situation.

So, revenge against America over grievances and acts in the past probably played a part in the September 11 attacks. That's why thousands of Palestinians danced in the streets when the news of the planes knifing into the World Trade Center reached them. Many of them live in squalor with Israeli soldiers and tanks as constant companions, and the government of Israel receives enormous support from the United States.

Many analysts believe this is the real motive behind September 11. As Michael Scott Doran writes in the book How Did This Happen? perhaps asking "Why do they hate us so much?" is the wrong question.

Mr. Doran, an Assistant Professor of Near Eastern studies, argues that the goal of the terrorists was not to murder three or four thousand Americans; it was to create a piece of grotesque political theatre that would trigger a reaction. So, the question all people in the West ought to be thinking about is: "Why did they try to provoke us?"

Why does anybody provoke anybody? To get a reaction, and Osama bin Laden got the reaction he probably wanted. U.S. President George W. Bush ordered a huge military retaliation against bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist network. So, air strikes were launched in an attempt to obliterate bin Laden and his hideout in Afghanistan. Of course, there wasn't much else that Mr. Bush could do, but the use of bombs and missiles against little, defenceless Afghanistan has played out in the Middle East as an over-reaction.

It's a bit like Yosemite Sam going after Bugs Bunny with a massive cannon; Bugs is a pesky nuisance but, in the end, your sympathies tend to be with him.

The audience bin Laden and his followers are performing for is in the Middle East. There have already been concerns expressed in the West about innocent Afghans getting in the way of America's so-called smart bombs. Concern in the West, but outrage in the Middle East.

Michael Doran writes that this "... outrage will open a chasm between state and society in the Middle East, and the governments allied with the West - many of which are repressive, corrupt, and illegitimate - will find themselves adrift. It was to provoke such an outcome that bin Laden broadcast his statement following the start of the military campaign on October 7, in which he said, among other things, that the Americans and the British `have divided the entire world into two regions - one of faith, where there is no hypocrisy, and another of infidelity, from which we hope God will protect us.'"

So, according to this view, Osama bin Laden's goal is to bring about a confrontation between the mass of ordinary Muslims and the regimes that are allied to the West. This will help him reach his main goal, which is, according to Mr. Doran, "Islamic revolution within the Islamic world itself, in the Arab lands especially, and in Saudi Arabia above all."

But, why such a roundabout route to your target? Why not directly attack the government you want to change? Well, the militants had already tried that and failed.

Egypt is a country with an enormous gulf between a rich and powerful minority and the impoverished masses. The government seems less able than the Islamists, who maintain a traditional Islamic social services network, to deliver medical, educational, and social benefits to poor people. Under the leadership of President Hosni Mubarak, the country goes through the motions of having elections, but the result, a win for Mr. Mubarak and his allies, is never in doubt. President Mubarak receives the financial and military support of the United States.

Unable to change their government through ballots, the radical Gamaat Islamiya (Islamic Group) decided to give bullets a try. In the early 1990s, it began a campaign to set up an Islamic republic by force. Islamic Group members launched armed attacks on police, Coptic Christians, and tourists. The government's response was extreme brutality against all forms of political dissent. Thousands of suspected militants were tried and jailed without due process of law. More than 70 prisoners were executed under special military courts set up to handle terrorist offences.

Martha Crenshaw, writing in Current History, describes what happened next. "As a result, radical frustrations apparently were transferred to the United States as a symbol of both oppression and arrogance. As a free and affluent society, America is a target-rich environment, and one where sensational attacks elicit gratifying media attention. Portraying the United States as an immoral enemy justifies terrorism to the audiences of the dispossessed, especially young men without life prospects whose only education is religious."

Ms. Crenshaw believes that it was not difficult to take these strands of discontent and weave them into a terrorist network such as al-Qaeda.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. Michael Dobbs wrote in the Washington Post in September 2001 that Osama "bin Laden's view of America is almost the mirror opposite of America's view of him. In his opinion, he and his supporters are waging a just war against American `terrorism.' Terrorist acts committed by Americans, according to bin Laden, include the 'occupation' of Saudi Arabia, the 'starving' of up to a million Iraqi children because of UN sanctions against Iraq, the withholding of arms to Bosnian Muslims in their war against Christian Serbs, and the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan at the end of the Second World War. Terrorism, bin Laden tom ABC News in 1998 can be both `reprehensible' and `commendable.' Oppressed peoples have a right to terrorize `oppressors and criminals and thieves.' "Discuss the views expressed in this quotation.

2. In October 1979, a group of students seized 66 American hostages by taking over the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, Iran. The students had the blessing and support of the Iranian government. Have a team of students research the background to this event and report on any similarities between it and the attacks of 11 September 2001.

LANDS OF THE UNFREE

Each year, the human rights organization Freedom House rates all the countries in the world according to how well they deliver civil liberties and human rights to their people. Of the 192 nations examined in 2001, 82 are rated as free, 58 as partly free, and 48 as not free. Among the 47 nations with a Muslim majority only Mall in West Africa is rated as free. Freedom House points out that there is nothing in Islam that contradicts the notion of democracy. Indeed, millions of Muslims live contentedly in democracies such as Canada and the U.S.

Freedom House also notes there is a strong link between repressive governments and the presence of oil within those Islamic countries. Roy Culpeper, President of the North-South Institute in Ottawa, thinks Canada and other democracies help keep these oppressive regimes in power. In a letter to the editor of The Globe and Mail, Mr. Culpeper wrote: "The support of these regimes by the United States and its allies (including Canada)is indeed unconscionable, and in the case of oil-producing Islamic countries demonstrates that secure oil supplies have a higher priority in the West than human rights ... Islam has always emphasized social justice and equity. Instead of turning a blind eye, it is time that we in the industrialized and democratic world supported those in Islamic civil society struggling for basic freedoms -- women (not only in Afghanistan), labour unions, journalists, writers, and academics -- who are victimized by authoritarian states on the one hand or fundamentalist clerics on the other."

FACT FILE

Since the late 1960s, the United States has been the target of approximately one third of all international terrorism attacks.

OSAMA'S HOLY WAR

Osama bin Laden declared a holy war against the United States in August 1996. In Arabic, the word jihad means "holy war" and, according to Islam, it can only be declared by a senior mullah (bishop). Mr. bin Laden has no formal religious training and no title or position within Islam.

That 1996 jihad was directed at "Americans occupying the land of the two holy places." That refers to the 5,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia since the Gulf War of 1991. Saudi Arabia is the location of the two holy Muslim shrines of Mecca and Medina. The American view is that their military presence is not an occupation, but a force of protection for the Saudi government. They could have picked nicer people as friends. Saudi Arabia is governed by an absolute monarch and his large family; here's how the human rights group Freedom House describes the situation: "Saudis cannot change their government democratically. Political parties are illegal, the king rules by decree, and there are no elections at any level." Add to this the fact that the royal family steals much of the country's fabulous oil wealth. In a familiar story, the ordinary people are suffering declining living standards and rising unemployment. Why would America, a country that advertises itself as a beacon for freedom and democracy, be helping such an unpleasant bunch as the al-Saud family? The country controls 11% of the world's oil supply, and the United States needs that oil -- badly.

In 1998, Osama bin Laden enlarged the scope of his holy war. He wrote that, "For more than seven years, the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of its territories, Arabia, plundering its riches, overwhelming its rulers, humiliating its people, threatening its neighbours, and using its bases in the peninsula as a spearhead to fight against the neighbouring Islamic people."

Now, he said, his jihad included the killing of all "Americans and their allies, civilians and military ... in any country in which it is possible to do it."

In his writing he has given clear indications of his tactics. He knows that sending his few thousand al-Qaeda fighters into frontal combat against the military power of the United States is guaranteed to end in disaster -- for him. So, he has stressed the need for guerrilla-style tactics that are very carefully planned. Guerrillas usually use a hit-and-run style of attack, al-Qaeda members hit and stay. Their willingness to die in the process of carrying out an attack makes them much more difficult to stop.

In October 2000, two men in a small inflatable boat loaded with explosives blew a gaping hole in the side of the American destroyer USS Cole. Just before the explosion, the two men were seen standing at attention and saluting in their little boat. And, why wouldn't they be? Their commander, Osama bin Laden, talked about the symbolism of the attack in a videotape widely circulated in the Arab world a few months later. "The destroyer represented the West," he said, "the small boat represented Mohammed."

FACT FILE

Twelve of the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia.

FACT FILE

In 2000, the United States imported 56% of its oil, a quarter of that from the Middle East; western Europe imported 60%, almost half of this from the Middle East; and, 82% of Japan's oil came from the Persian Gulf region.

Websites

Foreign Affairs Magazine - http://www.foreignaffairs. org/

Freedom House - http:// www.freedomhouse.org/