Something very interesting happened last week. It made me think and I’m sure it made many others think as well. Dr. William Pepper, legal adviser to Pakistan, former attorney for Martin Luther King, Jr., and an Oxford professor, spoke in Copley Formal Lounge about the causes of terrorism. Pepper also spoke about his views regarding King’s assassination. He said that King, before being killed, was planning a massive encampment of 500,000 people in Washington, D.C. to protest the scaling back of social programs. The authorities were worried that King would lose control of the crowd and that it would not have enough manpower to keep these people in check. The government feared that there would be a second American Revolution. They had reason to be worried because some radical French students and union members almost overthrew deGaulle’s government not too long before.
Just another conspiracy theory, right? Well, I’m afraid only God knows. At the very least though, this should make us think. After all, the American government has done a lot worse than assassinate one person.
When I was younger, I would constantly defend America. I was raised with the belief that this was the country that stood for human rights, liberty, freedom and justice the world over. I believed that our country was a symbol of good, a symbol of hope. I always wanted to believe it. We all want to believe it – after all, this is our country. But, as it turns out, I could not avoid the truth. I traveled to many countries in the Middle East and it became clear that American claims of foreign goodwill were not accurate. The more I learned about American foreign policy, the more it hurt.
Our country has a terrible history of aggression and exploitation. Many of the worst acts our country has committed have occurred within the span of the last 30 years. Saddam Hussein, currently our archenemy, actually used to be on the CIA payroll. Hussein’s Iraq was one of America’s “client states” during the 1980s. Even back then, Hussein was becoming known for his penchant for massacring Kurds. Manuel Noriega was also on the CIA payroll before he outlasted his purpose of advancing American interests. Osama bin Laden, falls under the same category – funded by the U.S. foreign policy machine. The same holds true for Jonas Savimbi – the brutal leader of Angola’s UNITA, a group that has been condemned as terrorists by the international community. Who funded UNITA’s terrorist operations? U.S. covert aid.
In the last 10 years, we have been able to see it with our own eyes. U.S. sanctions continue to cause mass suffering for Iraqi children while Saddam lives in his palaces. Every month, 4,500 Iraqi children die. The U.S. currently supports dictatorships in orocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan – countries with shocking human rights records. As if that wasn’t enough, the U.S. is the only country in the world that has been declared a war criminal by the World Court for its actions in Nicaragua. We cannot lie to ourselves anymore. The United States of America has supported terrorist groups and oppressive dictators in every region of the world as long as it guaranteed us cheap oil and served our self-interest. How many democracies have we toppled in Latin America? In how many countries have we sponsored brutal military coups? Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Chile, just to name a few. How many people have we killed in cold blood not only with our bombs and missiles but with our endless amounts of American “aid”?
All of this forces us to look at our hypocrisy. William Pepper summed it up when he said something that I will probably never forget: “I am sorry to say this . but the U.S. is the greatest state sponsor of terrorism the world has ever known.” While we have attacked and bombed countries all over the world for state-sponsored terrorism we have somehow forgotten to look in the mirror. Ironic, isn’t it?
If we truly want to be patriotic and make our country a better place, then we, as Americans, have to look deep down and ask ourselves some fundamental questions about where our country is going. American foreign policy always looks for the quick fix. And now we as Americans are all paying the price. America, if it really wanted to, could do so much with its resources to help the suffering peoples of the world. It is time for a change in American foreign policy. Enough violence. Enough bloodshed. Enough children dying. Enough mothers crying. In the end, if we want really want to win the war on terrorism, then our first target should be our own hearts and minds.
