Another 9/11 is inevitable

On a recent Sunday morning, NBC's Meet-the-Press host Tim Russert, CBS veteran newsman Dan Rather and retired ABC Nightline host Ted Koppel were musing about the stormy debate over the legality of the Bush administration's policy of spying on US citizens.

Koppel declared that the debate will end the instant America suffers another 9/11, and he added, "as it certainly will". He implied, of course, that Congress would then quickly give the president more latitude on spying, not less. Neither Russert nor Rather dissented from his forecast. That day, Meet-the-Press's enormous audience had new reason to rate America's war against terrorism a failure.

Under present US policies, Koppel is right. Another 9/11 is inevitable. US acts of war have strengthened, not reduced, the insurgency in Iraq. A recent one in Pakistan caused bitter protest, when the CIA not widely known as a war-making agency carried out an unwelcome and lethal aerial bombardment. Al Qaida operatives now enjoy rising public approval in both Iraq and Pakistan.

When Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden recently proposed a truce with the Bush administration, the White House contemptuously said no. I fervently hope, at the least, that our officials asked privately for details on a truce and, at long last, details on Arab grievances.

Grievances are soaring, but so far the US government has done nothing to try to identify them, much less redress them. Instead, in Iraq, it focuses on destroying insurgents seemingly unaware that they view US forces as foreign occupiers and want them out.

In Israel and Palestine, our government helps Israel destroy Arab insurgents whose grievances are US complicity in Israel's occupation of Arab land and its daily violation of Arab human rights.

President George W. Bush should have learned by now that acts of war will not pacify Iraq. And he should know that America's support of Israeli aggression is wrong, morally and legally.

Why 9/11? Months ago, Bin Laden informed the world that 9/11 was payback for US complicity in Israel's 1982 slaughter of more than 18,000 innocent Arabs in Beirut, as well as recent outrages.

Another payback

These days, we give Bin Laden incentive for another payback, but our government can prevent that calamity without firing a shot or spending more billions on a futile attempt to encase America in a protective cocoon. All it needs to do is suspend all aid until Israel ends its illegal occupation of Arab land.

That stand for justice would elicit pro-American rejoicing worldwide and likely reduce the insurgency in Iraq. It would restore lustre to the name America, a name now identified with acts of war, incarceration of suspected insurgents without due process and routine torture in secret prisons.

Why does our government continue to support a Middle East government that commits violations of Arab human rights on a massive scale? From long personal experience, this is my short answer: almost all US politicians regard any criticism of Israel as the exit to oblivion.

Other questions beg answers: Where are the powerful voices of moral outrage in newspapers, on television, from pulpits and from the halls of academia? Is everyone silenced out of fear that calling Israel to account will lead to false but painful charges of anti-Semitism? Is that why no one not Russert, Koppel or Rather not a single journalist of prominence in the nation is willing to speak or write critically about the folly of our unconditional pro-Israel bias?

Are we fated to suffer more wars, more dead military personnel, more blighted families, more billions of public debt and hostility worldwide, simply because America's national leadership, almost to the last person, fears Israel's US lobby?

Bush could swiftly transform the clouds of war into the bright promise of peace. All he needs to do is sheath his sword and take a firm stand for justice. But will he?