History Is Written By Those Who Win

[9/11] Was Not Meant To Be Argued With. It Wasn't Part Of Any Negotiation. No Message Was Intended With It. It Spoke For Itself, Which Is Unusual.

If You Live In The [middle East] Area, You See [u.s Actions] As Part Of A Continuing Drive For Dominance, And With It A Kind Of Obduracy, A Stubborn Opposition To The Wishes And Desires And Aspirations Of The People There.

The Orient That Appears In Orientalism, Then, Is A System Of Representations Framed By A Whole Set Of Forces That Brought The Orient Into Western Learning, Western Consciousness, And Later, Western Empire.... The Orient Is The Stage On Which The Whole East Is Confined. On This Stage Will Appear The Figures Whose Role It Is To Represent The Larger Whole From Which They Emenate. The Orient Then Seems To Be, Not An Unlimited Extension Beyond The Familiar European World, But Rather A Closed Field, A Theatrical Stage Affixed To Europe.

The United States That Has Been Involved First In The Gulf War And Then In The Tremendously Damaging Sanctions Against Iraqi Civilians. The United States That Is The Supporter Of Israel Against The Palestinians.

In Short, Israel Is The Measure Of Our Failings And Our Incompetence. We Have Waited For A Great Leader For Years, But None Came; We Have Waited For A Mighty Military Victory, But We Were Defeated Roundly; We Have Waited For Outside Powers (the United States Or, In Its Time, The Soviet Union), But None Came To Our Aid. The One Thing We Have Not Tried In All Seriousness Has Been To Rely On Ourselves: Until We Do That With A Full Commitment To Success There Is No Chance That We Can Advance Towards Self-determination And Freedom From Aggression.