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U.S. Author Slams Bush’s War Says “We Are Not The World’s Policeman”
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Cover
of Gore Vidal’s Book
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LONDON,
July 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – A U.S. author has
launched a blistering attack on U.S. president George W. Bush’s war
on terror, a U.K. newspaper reported Wednesday.
In
his latest book titled Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got
To Be So Hated, Gore Vidal raised several question marks, U.K. daily
newspaper the Daily Mirror reported.
The
outspoken 76-year-old said the U.S. provoked the September 11 attacks
with its own military intervention in countries around the world, the
paper said.
Staunch
democrat Vidal, a former White House aide to John F. Kennedy, insisted
the U.S. should stop meddling in other people's affairs.
In
an interview with LA Weekly he said Bush's attack on Afghanistan was
motivated by oil, not revenge.
He
said that he does not think that the American people, deserved what
happened nor do they deserve the sort of governments they have had
over the past 40 years.
“The
American governments have brought this upon us by their actions all
over the world”, Vidal said.
He
added that the Americans get misinformed by the New York Times and
other official media and they are clueless to the extent of their
government's mischief. The number of unprovoked U.S. military strikes
against other countries, since 1947 exceeded 250, he said.
“The
government plays off Americans' relative innocence, or ignorance to be
more precise. This is probably why geography has not really been
taught since World War II - to keep people in the dark as to where we
are blowing things up,” he added.
“The
Afghans had nothing to do with what happened to our country on
September 11. It seems Osama is involved, but we don't really know.”
Vidal
added that when the U.S. forces went into Afghanistan the commanding
general was asked how long it was going to take to find bin Laden and
that he looked surprised and said that this was not the reason the
forces was there.
“What
it was really about is that this is an imperial grab for energy
resources. Until now, the Persian Gulf has been the main source for
imported oil. That is why the U.S. forces went there, to Afghanistan,
not to get Osama and vengeance , but for other purposes.”
“We
went partly because the Taliban were getting too flaky and because
Unocal, the California corporation, had made a deal with the Taliban
for a pipeline to get the Caspian-area oil - the richest oil reserve
on Earth”, he said.
“We
had planned to occupy Afghanistan in October, and Osama, or whoever
hit us in September, launched a pre-emptory strike. They knew we were
coming. This was a warning to throw us off guard,” Vidal added.
In
his answer to the question regarding what the Americans thought of
Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks, especially on the issue of the war,
he said: “after 9/11 the country was shocked and terrified.”
“Bush
does a war dance and talks about evil axis and all the countries he's
going to go after. And how long it is going to take, he says with a
happy smile, because it means billions for the Pentagon and for his
oil friends.
And
it means curtailing our liberties, so this is very thrilling for him.
He's out there bombing Afghanistan. Well, he might as well have been
bombing Denmark. Denmark had nothing to do with September11. And
neither did Afghanistan,” said Vidal.
He
concluded, “Everything here is slanted. I mean to watch Bush doing
his war dance in Congress...about "evil doers" and this
"axis of evil" - Iran, Iraq and North Korea. I thought, he
doesn't even know what the word axis means.”
He
added that the U.S. should withdraw its military troops from all
around the world and go home. “We are not the world's policeman. We
cannot even police the United States.”
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