Some Iowans say the attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. was provoked by the United States. Gill Dawes of the Methodist Federation for Social Action says the attacks were not acts of war.
Dawes says the use of the word “war” is a deliberate government attempt to whip up the public, increase the defense budget, and build international support. He says the targets of the attack were “clearly globalization and U-S imperialism.”
Dawes says politicians are also not calling the attacks terrorism. He says if they call it terrorism, then they have to explain “state sponsored terrorism” in other countries. Dawes says U-S citizens shouldn’t be surprised by the attacks. He calls it a “case of the chickens coming home to roost.” He says the same thing has happened in other countries.
He says he saw the U.S. support a military dictatorship in Argentina where 15 to 30,000 people “were disappeared.” He says that makes Tuesday’s disaster look like small peanuts.Dawes was asked if he meant America was getting what it deserved.Dawes responded that “we’re getting the result of what we have handed out, over and over.”
Dawes says the U.S. has sanctioned events in many countries that’ve led to the deaths of thousands of people.