"I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve".
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
The Sept. 11 attacks gave Washington a pretext for American expansionism around the world and were a defeat for Arabs, according to Arab and Muslim commentators on the third anniversary of the suicide hijackings. "The events of Sept. 11 were a minor crisis that the Americans have turned into a global crisis," according to conservative Iranian Mahmoud Mohammadi, vice president of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.
| We're sensitive that way. Iran can bump off 3000 of its people at a shot and nobody blinks an eye. In the U.S. it's not a common occurrence. |
State television here accused the United States of using the attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed, as a pretext to wage war on others. "After Sept. 11, the White House declared a state of war (and), under the pretext of cleansing the world of terrorism, they attacked Afghanistan and then Iraq. They threatened other countries under the pretext that they were supporting terrorism and making weapons of mass destruction," its commentary said.
| Seems to me that a stateless army, sheltered by Afghanistan, declared war on us. That was in 1998. We did nothing until we were attacked. |
In Cairo, editorials said the Arabs in general were paying for the attacks, while Egypt's own place on the world stage had been diminished. And Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told a conference on regional security: "I can say that the greatest challenge threatening our security is the world's narrow vision in dealing with our region. This vision is the real threat facing our region, and recognising it is the real challenge facing our partners."
| There is no slight possibility, anywhere, anyhow, that the Arab world has a peculiarly narrow vision of the world and of its place in the world. Nope. None. |
|