Johnson Indicts U.S. Foreign Policy

Chalmers Johnson (“The Lessons of Blowback,” Opinion, Sept. 30) asserts that the terrorism of Sept. 11 was not directed against America but against American foreign policy. What wishful thinking. In fact, the terrorists are more hateful of American culture than of American foreign policy; they see our secularism, our homosexuality, our feminism, our drugs, our rock ‘n’ roll and our mindless celebrity worship as far greater threats to their way of life than any need we might have for oil, which is, frankly, the only political interest we have in the Mideast.

Johnson asserts that we should stop propping up repressive regimes. Does he mean Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt? What’s so repressive about them? And what about Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Sudan, none of which can be considered American props. He further asserts that Israel should cease its apartheid practices in Palestine. But that is precisely what the Rabin and Barak governments tried to do, resulting in a new intifada and an onslaught of suicide bombers.

He claims that globalization has only made the rich richer and the poor poorer. This is pure cant, based less on evidence than on received wisdom. It seems rather that where the poor have indeed become poorer it is the result not of American foreign policy but of corrupt regimes, backward social structures and the lack of historically developed institutions.

Fred Stafford

Los Angeles

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Thanks very much for printing Johnson’s piece. Words such as “blunder,” “pointlessly, even comically, belligerent,” “seems to lack insight or candor” and “hyperbole,” as applied to President Bush, all resonate strongly with me. Johnson’s warning that the end result of a “war on terrorism” will be a further cycle of terrorist attacks, American casualties and escalation should be heeded by those who are planning our response to Sept. 11.

I am baffled by the reports that upward of 90% of Americans polled approve of President Bush’s handling of the situation. Who are these 90%? And what question evoked that 90% approval rating? Those results don’t jibe with the reaction of people I know and communicate with.

Harold D. Watkins

Studio City