<a href="http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=4065" source="ZNet" author="William Blum">Myth and Denial in the War Against Terrorism</a> write about the real causes of terrorism instead of the blithe <iq>And the more you love freedom, the more likely it is you'll be attacked. ... they hate our democracy, our freedom, our wealth, our secular government ... [people who] reject basic human values and hate the United States and everything for which it stands ... </iq> claptrap issued forth from our estimable administration. One can dispute how 'secular' the US government is, but one can't argue that terrorists hate 'everything for which it stands'; that is, in all likelihood, true. It's just that people outside of America understand that what America <i>says</i> it stands for and what it <i>actually</i> stands for are two different things. Bill Blum (author of several very good books detailing recent US military and covert operations) would fight terrorism in the following way: <bq>If I were the president, I could stop terrorist attacks against the United States in a few days. Permanently. I would first apologize --- very publicly and very sincerely --- to all the widows and orphans, the impoverished and the tortured, and all the many millions of other victims of American imperialism. Then I would announce that America's global military interventions have come to an end. I would then inform Israel that it is no longer the 51st state of the union but -– oddly enough -– a foreign country. Then I would reduce the military budget by at least 90% and use the savings to pay reparations to the victims and repair the damage from the many American bombings, invasions and sanctions. There would be enough money. One year of our military budget is equal to more than $20,000 per hour for every hour since Jesus Christ was born. That's one year. That's what I'd do on my first three days in the White House. On the fourth day, I'd be assassinated.</bq>