Why 9-11?
-Mark Guadagni

What happened on the morning of September 11th will be in the hearts and minds of Americans for generations to come; but why it happened is still an answer that is highly controversial. The motives of al-Qaeda have been extensively analyzed by many, and differing conclusions have emerged.

President Bush explained the general motivations of the terrorists as "Americans are asking, why do they hate us... They hate a democratically elected government. ... They hate our freedoms." This makes no sense; why would someone hate a group of people just because they are freer than them? This is just what they want us to believe—even though it is far from the truth.

The fact of the matter is that the United States was very active in the middle East during the pre-9/11 era, supporting regimes that are hostile to Muslims (Israel), exporting natural resources (oil), imposing strangling sanctions that lead to starving of children in Iraq (UNICEF has put the number of child deaths to 500,000), and stationing American military bases throughout the Arabian Peninsula.

Just take it from the experts: CIA Bin Laden Unit Chief Michael Scheuer puts it best, "politicians really are at great fault for not squaring with the American people. We're being attacked for what we do in the Islamic world, not for who we are or what we believe in or how we live". Even Osama Bin Laden states, "We swore that America would not live in security until we live it truly in Palestine .

This showed the reality of America , which puts Israel 's interest above its own people's interest. America will not get out of this crisis until it gets out of the Arabian Peninsula and until it stops its support of Israel ". It is clear from his statement that these terrorist attacks were incited by America ’s aggressive, barbaric foreign policy in the Middle East .

So now that we have cleared up the misunderstanding about the terrorists’ motives — what are the motives of our government to cover up the motives of Al-Qaeda? In an ideal world, governments would not have any hidden agendas; however, we don’t live in that type of world. September 11^th has become springboard to further the governments hidden agenda—imperialism.

Using fear as a tool against rationale thought, our government coaxed our nation into declaring war and occupying a sovereign nation. How can we condemn the 9/11 attackers by turning around committing more atrocities halfway around the world? All this will do is continue the cycle of violence, and if you don’t believe me, just look at Israel and Palestine . Is this what we want for our future?