Quote:
Originally posted by Undertoad
Yet to be explained is how US foreign policy is responsible, or what type of terrorist appeasement France did not perform that might have prevented a possible atrocity.
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Americans forget (often out of ignorance) that we are (or were) down the list of terrorist targets. France has long been a major target of terrorism. How many remember the French Jumbo bombed out of Senegal skies? Or French troops in a Lebanon barracks who were victims of a suicide truck bomb? How many remember that French ships always ran a gaunlet of artillery fire when transiting the straits between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean? Or their never ending problem with Algier terrorists? Other countries have been more targets of terrorism. But a US public with all but no international news reports, forgets to learn about or remember non-American terrorism.
When the US chooses not to enforce its opinions on a people, then those peoples don't make Americans a target. Americans could often walk through war zones safely. It was American 'blow them back to the stone age' attitudes that made, for example, 1980s Lebanon such as dangerous place for Americans. We made ourselves a target of terrorists.
Everyone makes enemies. It is a question of whether we make a few trivial enemies OR convert a whole political faction, nation, or region into a hotbed of anti-American activity.
Want to see what terrorism is really about? Unilaterally invade Iraq. Frenchmen may like that. It would make the French a lesser target.