Some people say that America has a problem with terrorism because America is hated by people in other nations because America has intervened in other nations, especially that America has arranged for oppressive dictators to overthrow popularly elected governments.
But America has only supported two coups in the middle east. America supported Shah Reza Pahlavi when Pahlavi seized power in Iran from prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953. Mossadegh had been elected, but had little popular support. America supported Abdul Salam Arif's coup against Abdel-Karim Kassem in Iraq in 1963. Kassem had not been elected at all. Kassem had seized power in a previous coup in 1958. Neither coup involved large American support. In both coups, the majority of the population was neutral, so America was not opposing the popular will.
Britain, France, and Russia have intervened in the middle east more frequently than America. Britain and France ruled the middle east after WWI. Britain helped Ibn Saud take control of Saudi Arabia. Britain and France supported puppet governments in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. In 1956, Britain and France invaded Egypt and took control of the Suez Canal. America forced Britain and France to give the Suez Canal back to Egypt, so why do Egyptians hate America more than Britain or France? Russia supported coups in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Oman, Somalia, and Afganistan. Russia arranged for Czechoslovakia to provide military supplies to Israel in 1948, when Egypt and Jordan were trying to conquer Israel; this is the most significant foreign support which Israel has ever received; without this russian support, Israel would not exist today. Russia provoked the 1967 six day arab israeli war, which resulted in a major defeat for Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Russia supported more repressive governments in the middle east than any other nation.
America is hated by many people in the middle east, but the hatred is not caused by american intervention in the middle east, because America has not intervened that much in the middle east. If the people of the middle east hated nations which intervened in the middle east, the people of the middle east would hate Russia more than any other nation.
Some people say that if America stops intervening in other nations, then the hatred of America will decline, and terrorism against America will decline. But the hatred of America in the middle east is not caused by american intervention in the middle east, so if America stops intervening in other nations, terrorism against America will not decline.
Also, if you think that terrorism against America is the result of American intervention in other nations, then please explain why there are so few antiamerican terrorists from latin america. America has intervened more often in latin america than in the middle east, so why is America hated more in the islamic middle east nations than in latin america?
The question of why islamic terrorists attack America should be split into two questions. Why does terrorism come from islamic middle east nations? Why is America the target of terrorists?
Terrorism comes from islamic middle east nations because of a combination of factors. Violence is more fashionable in islamic middle east nations. This is less peer pressure for nonviolence in islamic middle east nations. There is more intolerance in islamic middle east nations. The people in the islamic middle east nations hate Americans for the same reason the Klu Klux Klan hates blacks. And the governments of the islamic middle east nations are incompetent.
China is as intolerant as the islamic nations, but there is no chinese terrorism because violence is less socially acceptable in China. African governments are as incompetent as islamic middle east governments, but there is no african terrorism because africans are not as intolerant as the people in the islamic middle east nations. It is the combination of factors which creates terrorism.
In order to eliminate terrorism from the islamic middle east nations, we must reform the islamic middle east nations. In order to reform the islamic middle east nations, we must intervene in the islamic middle east nations much more than America has intervened in the past. America needs to fix the internal problems of the middle east nations. America needs to do things like invade Iraq and establish an american-like government in Iraq.
The government of America does not do a good job of solving the problems of America, so the government of America will probably not do a good job of solving the problems of Iraq either. But american government in Iraq will probably be less bad than Saddam Hussein.
The reason why America is the target of terrorists can be explained with monkey psychology.
If you are a small monkey, and you beat up another small monkey, no one cares. But if you are a small monkey and you beat up the big monkey, then the other monkeys are impressed and you become the big monkey. The big monkey is a bigger threat to the other monkeys than any little monkey, and so when a little monkey challenges the big monkey, the other monkeys support the little monkey. All primates, including humans, instinctively plot against the big monkey and support challengers to the big monkey.
America is the most prominent nation and the biggest monkey on Earth. People who are trying to impress their friends by beating someone up will attack America, because attacking America is much more impressive than attacking some deadbeat loser. Since America is the most powerful nation on Earth, people instinctively think that America is a bigger threat than the neighborhood psychopath, even though people are more likely to be robbed or murdered by the neighborhood psychopath than by America. Humans instinctively fear powerful people more than evil people.
Some people say that America is hated because America intervenes in other nations too often, and that if America stopped intervening in other nations, then people in other nations would stop hating America. I agree that America intervenes in other nations too often. But if America stopped intervening in other nations, people in other nations would still hate America. It is not enough for America to stop intervening in other nations. As long as America has the power to intervene in other nations, even if America never uses that power, people in other nations will fear and hate America. If America stops intervening in other nations, the hatred of America and the terrorism against America will not stop.
Throughout the history of the world, there has usually been a balance of power among nations. Whenever the balance of power becomes unbalanced, the dominant alliance usually breaks up and a new balance of power is established. The minor members of the dominant alliance tend to fear the leaders of the dominant alliance more than the weaker alliance, and so the minor members of the dominant alliance tend to quit the dominant alliance and join the weaker alliance.
If we could make some other nation the most prominent nation, then that nation would become the prime target, and terrorism against America would decline.
America could become less prominent by reducing american involvment in other nations, by not intervening in other nations, by reducing the American military, by restricting trade and investment with other nations, by reducing diplomatic relations with other nations, by reducing aid to other nations, by becoming totally isolationist. Also, the American government would have to restrict American citizens from involving themselves in foreign affairs. For example, one time when I was in Britain, one person was rude to me. This did not bother me, but my hosts were upset and apologized to me. They explained that this person was from northern Ireland, and hated all americans because a few americans supported the IRA, even though the american government opposed the IRA. For America to become totally isolationist, the american government would have to punish any american citizen who supported anything in any other nation. Do you think that americans who support justice in other nations should be punished?
The main reason that America is the most prominent nation is that America is a large and rich nation. Even if America was totally isolationist, America would still be a prominent nation. To become less prominent, America will have to become smaller or poorer. If you want to become poorer, why don't you give me all your money?
The best way to make America less prominent is to split America into many small and unimportant nations. The airplanes which crashed into the world trade center were hijacked in Boston, Massachusetts. The hijackers hated America, but did not hate Massachusetts. If Massachusetts had been an independent nation, the hijackers would not have hijacked airplanes in Boston. If America was divided into many small and unimportant nations, then the most prominent nations would be the European Union and China. The middle eastern terrorists would attack the European Union and China, and there would be no terrorist attacks against the former american states.
If you do not want to intervene in the middle east, and if you do not want to split up America, then there is only one other way to deal with terrorism, and that is to do nothing. We can accept that terrorism is inevitable, and there is nothing we can do about it. We can regard terrorism as a natural disaster, like earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, floods, blizzards, and fires. We already live with occasional natural disasters; we can live with occasional acts of terrorism too. People died in the pentagon/world trade center attacks, but people die every day. Buildings were destroyed in the pentagon/world trade center attacks, but buildings are destroyed every day. The total damage in the pentagon/world trade center attacks was similar to a Miami hurricane or a California earthquake.
The pentagon/world trade center attacks could have been prevented very easily. When Ronald Reagan was president of America, there were several airplane hijackings. The Reagan administration proposed that hijackers should be resisted. The Reagan administration proposed putting sky marshals on airplanes to fight hijackers. But the left wing opponents of Reagan said this would result in wild west shootouts on airplanes, and would result in many injuries and deaths among the passengers. The left wing opponents of Reagan said that the best way to protect the lives of the passengers was to offer no resistance to hijackers. And so the government of America adopted a policy of assisting hijackers. The pentagon/world trade center attacks would have been impossible without this policy.
If an airplane hijacking succeeds, then other terrorists will be more likely to attempt to hijack other airplanes in the future. But if an airplane hijacking fails, then other terrorists will be less likely to attempt to hijack other airplanes in the future. We should make sure that every attempted airplane hijacking fails, even if we have to sacrifice the lives of the passengers and crew. This will result in fewer hijackings and fewer deaths in the future.
There is no need for government sky marshals. The crew and passengers can fight the hijackers.