"Why"
By Mumia Abu Jamal

The woman's voice on the phone was as plaintive as a tear,
as she implored the non-responsive talk show host to please
tell her, "Why do they hate us so much? Why?".

Her voice, while not commonly projected in the current
media, resonates in the consciousness of millions of
Americans, who look at the carnage of the World Trade
Center, shiver at the violent audacity of it, and wonder,
"Why?".

This is a particularly American response, one made in a
culture that has no yesterdays, and only a tomorrow of
creature comforts, no-fat ice cream, and luxury cars.

History, to millions of Americans, is John Wayne, or the
vaunted Founding Fathers, who have no blemishes, nor
flaws. Much of the outer world are of no import, as they are
subjects of the Empire, and thus expendable.

Their histories, deeply intertwined with the U.S., are of no
serious consequence. Hence, the question, "Why?".

This almost willful ignorance of millions of Americans
allows them to look at the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, and
the veering jet liners of 11 September, 2001, and ask,
"Why?".

If you, the reader, don't want to hear an answer to this
rhetorical question, feel free to turn the page, for the
writer's response will not please you.

The airplane bombing of the WORLD TRADE center towers and of
the Pentagon didn't begin on Sept. 11, 2001. Nor are they,
as some politicians glibly suggest, "A war against
civilization." But it ain't the job of politicians to inform
you.

It is the job of the media, but their central concern is to
sell you, and therefore they don't want to upset you. Their
primary responsibility is not to their readers, but to the
owners, or the stockholders. And it is the interests of the
military-industrial- complex that millions remain uninformed
and misinformed.

The suicide flights over New York, Washington and
Pennsylvania had their beginning in the mountainous terrain
of Afghanistan, in the 10- year guerilla war against the
former Soviet Union. That war was supported and facilitated
by the U.S. CIA, which pumped billions into the anti-Soviet
insurgency.

The result? An Algerian sociologist told an American
journalist in Algiers, "Your government participated in
creating a monster." The sociologist added, "Now it has
turned against you and the world -- 16,000 Arabs were
trained in Afghanistan, made into a veritable killing
machine." (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 4, 1996).

A U.S. diplomat in Pakistan echoed these sentiments when he
said, "This is an insane instance of the chickens coming
home to roost. You can't plug billions of dollars into an
anti-Communist jihad, accept participation >from all over
the world and ignore the consequences. But we did. Our
objectives weren't peace and grooviness in Afghanistan. Our
objective was killing Communists and getting the Russians
out" (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 4, 1996, p. 2).

How did the Afghanis pay for the weapons, in such a poor,
war-ravaged country? How many know that Afghanistan is the
world's greatest producer of heroin?

Short on hard dough, the Afghan mujaheddin traded heroin for
arms with their CIA suppliers, and the "Golden Crescent"
heroin ring was born.

When the Soviets were whipped, and the war ended, the
insurgents looked around and saw, not Soviet, but
U.S. dominance in the region.  They saw the U.S. military
presence in the Islamic holy places in Saudi Arabia, its
backing of anti-democratic client states, its ravaging of
Iraq, and its one-sided support of Israel at the expense of
the beleaguered Palestinians, and as they examine the U.S.,
they see the imperial similarities to the Soviets.

Afghanistan, one of the poorest, most rugged places on
earth, has a population with a male life expectancy of 46
(45 for females!). It has a literacy rate of about 29%. It
looks at the swollen opulence of the Americans, the global
reach of the American empire, and bristles.

This nationalist, cultural, religious and class distance
fuels a deep and abiding hatred of American dominance.

Humiliation, of which the Islamic world has had a great deal
since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, and the
colonial era of the early-to-middle Twentieth Century, is a
powerful force. It brought a humbled German to the brink of
world conquest after World War I. It is not to be taken
lightly.

Afghanistan may prove another turning point in world
history, which is why we all should learn about it.

Copyright 2001 Mumia Abu-Jamal. All rights reserved.