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Fraggin'

By Bill Shunas

When the Reverend Jones announced he was going to burn the Quran on September 11, everybody from David Petraeus to Barack Obama to Sarah Palin criticized him and rightly pointed out the potential blow back against US troops. Fortunately he didn't carry out the burning, but some copycats did. While this opposition to the Quran burning received much attention at the time, little attention is paid to the potential damage to the troops because of the opposition to the building of the Muslim cultural center near Ground Zero.

In this column I have previously expressed the opinion that there are reasons which foster the creation of fanatics who wish to commit terrorist acts against Americans. These include: (1) having US troops stationed in the Muslim holy land of Saudi Arabia, (2) not getting a fair shake for the Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, (3) being responsible and not apologizing for the massive loss of children in Iraq between the two wars as a result of the bombings and sanctions and (4) supporting some of the more repressive governments in the Middle East. To move toward peace with the Muslim world would require an effort to work on these problems.

We must add something more to the list. We must not allow the prevention of the building of the Muslim cultural center (with prayer room) just because it happens to be two and a half blocks from Ground Zero. What an insult to the Muslim world. What an insult to potential friends around the world. What an inspiration for young Muslims to be persuaded to take up arms against Americans.

It is not popular to say so, but we do create conditions that cause some people to wish to attack the US and kill Americans. To suggest that there were US caused conditions that led to Al Qaeda attacking on 9/11 does not mean that we "had it coming" or "deserved it." Those civilians who died that day and in the aftermath did not deserve it. But we can't deny that US foreign policy and intervention makes us many enemies. And it is not because they don't like our way of life as some would have you believe.

On 9/11 there were stories from surprised reporters in Muslim countries that large numbers of people felt elated over the Twin Towers attacks. Supposedly the elation was due to someone having the audacity to attack the superpower that they didn't like. Many of these people felt deflated after the realization of the extent of the civilian damage became known, but their first reaction points to the visceral anti-American feeling out there in the Middle East.

When there are so many Muslims with a dislike of the way America has treated that part of the world, it is no wonder that this is fertile ground for Al Qaeda wannabees. Or, to put it another way we can compare it to Vietnam where our adversary was successful in part because of popular support. Their soldiers were - to use the Maoist concept - the fish swimming in the sea of people. The same principle applied to other anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist wars of the time, some successful, and some not. The Al Qaeda terrorists certainly aren't Maoist revolutionaries, and there aren't that many of them, but the analogy of fish in the sea applies. The bad guys can move around freely among their people. Those people won't help us if we keep pissing them off. The sea will remain full for the terrorists.

The job of the US should be to - here's those words again - win hearts and minds in the Muslim world in order to eliminate the fanatics' base, to prevent them from running free and to shrink their pool of disaffected youngsters.

We aren't winning a whole lot of hearts and minds when our right wing nut jobs are trying to prevent the building of the cultural center in Manhattan. Remember, the whole world is watching. Unfortunately it isn't only the right wingers who oppose the cultural center. I think that there is some serious bigotry here that needs to be confronted. To say that the cultural center shouldn't be built so close to Ground Zero is to say that all Muslims are some how responsible for 9/11. The branding of everyone in the group (Muslims) for being responsible for the acts of a few is the kind of bigotry that alienates the Muslim world.

There have been questions raised about the integrity of the imam who is the force behind the building of the cultural center. Whether he's a good guy or not is beside the point. The constitution says that this country shouldn't discriminate on the basis of religion. It has nothing to do with personalities. Shutting up about the cultural center is the right thing to do.

Many of the same people who are out front about opposing the building of the cultural center are the folks who talk loudest about supporting the troops. By opposing the cultural center they are making it harder on our troops. They are alienating more Muslims which leads to anti-Americanism which leads to more terrorist recruits. This will lead to longer unwinable wars in places like Afghanistan or new wars in Yemen, Somalia, or who knows where. New unnecessary wars mean new, unnecessary casualties which is not exactly what "supporting the troops" means. Opposing the cultural center may not lead to a specific war, but it is a contributing factor to the anti-Americanism that spawns war.

Support the Troops.
Build, Baby, Build.

The claiming by some that Obama is Muslim is also an insult to the Muslim world because it implies that there is something wrong with being a Muslim president. Obama is Christian, but his defenders are weak. They're all busy trying to prove he's Christian when they should be saying that even if he were Muslim he has the right to be president.

Personally I think he's a Buddhist. He seems like a Zen and basketball type of guy. And I heard that he had a great-great-grandfather that was born in Siam. And the word is out about the birth certificate. He got it from a dude named Stuart. Stuart is the guy with a place upstairs over a pawn shop on the east side of Chicago. He's the guy sitting there in the almost dark except for one light behind his back. There are some bars between his desk and you. When you get to the top of the stairs you need to get buzzed in because Stuart don't take no chances and don't trust you and don't like you. His green eye shades hide his eyes so you can't tell what he's thinking. He's the guy - if you need a guy - to get any kind of paper, including birth certificates. I hear Rahm Emanuel knows him well.

Bill Shunas is a Vietnam veteran, author and VVAW member in the Chicago chapter.