PORTSTEWART, Northern Ireland. -- Politicians and much of the media in Britain are engaged in a familiar Western practice after a terrorist attack. They think they can explain it using Western standards.
Many Americans blamed U.S. race riots in the 1960s on racism and unemployment, which contributed to hopelessness they said only equality and prosperity could solve. That most unemployed blacks did not riot escaped the mainly white sociologists and commentators who desired a "nonjudgmental" explanation for lawless behavior. Having abandoned a sense of personal responsibility for one's actions, the explainers and excusers of evil and illegal acts in America 40 years ago have been reincarnated in Britain.
Now unemployment and hopelessness among Muslims are the root cause of terrorism. Finding jobs for them so they can drive nice cars, live in upscale flats and attend West End theaters supposedly will convert them to the British way of life.
Or maybe evil America caused the terrorist attacks. If only the U.S. had not invaded Iraq and dragged Britain along, perhaps Britain might have been spared the bus and tube bombings.
Sometimes it takes an outsider to bring people to their senses. Former Israeli Prime Minister (and current Cabinet minister) Benjamin Netanyahu told BBC's "Breakfast" program Sunday that Iraq and other actions by Britain and America are the consequences of terror attacks, not the cause.
He said to blame Britain and the United States for causing terrorism is "reverse causality." Mr. Netanyahu recalled the numerous terror attacks before the Iraq war and prior to the attacks on America of September 11, 2001, noting there was Islamic terrorism before 1948 when Israel became a modern state. If recent Israeli, American and British policies cause terrorism, how does one explain earlier terrorism? |