It’s difficult to separate ourselves from our ideologies and beliefs, but when examining why the United States has weak support for some of its international policies, what matters at least as much as our ideas is the perception by Arabs of how U.S. policy is manifested in the Arab world.
Because there is an apparent connection between terrorism and resentment of U.S. foreign policy, it’s important for people in intellectual settings like Northwestern to consider how the United States is perceived by the Arab world. In considering these perceptions, one should note that U.S. policy in one Arab state is viewed similarly in other Arab states.
What has been the Arab experience with U.S. foreign policy? Without passing judgment from our side, what have they seen? Since the Gulf War, more than 1 million Iraqis have died as a result of U.S.-led sanctions that have not shaken Saddam Hussein’s power base, and a majority of them are the weakest members of society. The largest death toll in any age group has been that of children less than five years old.
Today, Iraqis are in preparation for what they see as an inevitable war — their third in just 20 years. And no matter how much other Arab states despise Saddam, their sympathies greatly are swayed by the suffering of other Arabs and the feeling that the United States is ignoring their concerns.
Nearby, Palestinians continue to suffer the effects of military occupation. Again, regardless of our opinions, what is it that Palestinians experience? Just yesterday, 14 Palestinians were killed: about 2,000 have died in two years. Unemployment in the territories is at 65 percent, and three-fourths of the population lives in poverty, making less than $2 per day. Almost half of the women and children suffer from anemia. One hundred sixty-nine Palestinians have died from assassinations; 75 were collateral victims, 22 of them children.
Denial of access to humanitarian relief, the repression of any viable economic development and the daily humiliation that Palestinians suffer breed resentment toward Israel and the United States (who Arabs believe to back the occupation). These conditions and the prevailing ideas that result exasperate the prospects for peace. As American-made planes and American-backed policies take their toll on the people, the Arab view of the United States grows negative. Sometimes this frustration is taken out on innocent Israelis who also become victims of the U.S. policies that shape Palestinian perception of the United States. Hundreds of Israelis have been killed because of the desperation with which Palestinians have been forced to live or die.
If we accept that our policies in the Middle East affect the views of Arabs toward the United States, then the equation for terrorism becomes a little clearer: Take a state, impose unbearable restrictions on its functioning, humiliate and subject its occupants to disease and death. You will find that some of those people will see no light at the end of the tunnel, become manipulated by groups that preach militant solutions and sacrifice the lives of innocent people. There you have the irrational arts of occupation and terrorism.
Before this cycle strikes America again, it is essential for Americans at institutions like NU to consider, discuss and spread the word of more rational policies that stabilize and pacify the world. Only making U.S. policy more rational in the long term will change the negative view of the United States in the Middle East and around the world.
