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CNN Live Saturday

Why Do the Terrorists Hate the U.S. So Much?

Aired September 29, 2001 - 16:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, one question that has been asked a lot since the September 11 attack is why did the terrorists who committed the atrocities hate the United States so much?

Joining me now with some insight on that is "Time" Magazine's Lisa Beyer. She is just written an article on the roots of rage.

Lisa, thank you very much for being with us.

LISA BEYER, "TIME" MAGAZINE: You're welcome.

SAVIDGE: Americans tend to want to be liked. And seemed so surprised when we're not. Well, this goes beyond not being liked. This is hatred.

BEYER: Absolutely.

SAVIDGE: Give us an idea in this specific attack, what are the roots of that hatred?

BEYER: Well, we are a superpower. And we behave like a superpower all over the world. That is to say, we push our weight around. And we do that in the Middle East and the Islamic world, generally.

For example, we support Israel, which many Arabs consider to be, I would say most Arabs consider to be a hostile and unwelcome presence in the Middle East. We support certain repressive or certainly undemocratic regimes because it's in our own interest to do so.

We continue to insist on some very tough economic sanctions in Iraq. And even though Saddam Hussein isn't really a huge hero in the Arab world, there's a great deal of resentment of our continuing to punish the Iraqi people.

But I think that it's important to keep in mind that what makes these complaints particularly toxic is when you add to them, Islamic fundamentalism. There's a central tenet in Islam which says that there are -- that the world is divided in two. There is the world of Islam and there is the world of infidels. That's us.

And as far as Muslim radicals are concerned, the world of the infidels should have absolutely nothing to do with the world of Islam, should leave it alone at the very least, and not interfere. And this is at the top of the list of complaints that the Islamic world has against us.

And particularly, Osama bin Laden, who's number one complaint against the United States, and it's a much more important complaint than any other complaint he has, is our troop presence in Saudi Arabia. For him, to have infidel troops with their Christian and Jewish soldiers and their women in pants and their rock and roll roaming around Saudi Arabia, which is the birthplace of Mohammed and the home to Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, which are so holy that no non-Muslims can so much as visit there, is just for him a total sacrilege and is unacceptable.

SAVIDGE: So then, let's say the United States were, and they won't, but would pull their troops out of Saudi Arabia. Does that end it then? It's all over?

BEYER: Bin Laden's been asked that question. And he's addressed it in interviews in the past. And what he says is no, it's not enough, that the American's have to stop their oppression of the entire Islamic world.

And he draws that line very broadly. He blames us for basically the oppression or the killing of Muslims all over the world. He blames us for the Russians fighting the Chechnyan Muslims. He blames us for Serb Christians massacring Bosnian Muslims and Albanian Muslims in Kosovo.

As far as he's concerned, we're responsible for all of that. And I think for Americans, when we look at all those issues collectively, we think, "Oh, it's a very messy world out there." But for Islamic radicals, it looks like -- to them, like a conspiracy against their fellow believers.

SAVIDGE: Well, so what can be done? If we try to construct a bridge of understanding, what would be done?

BEYER: Well, if I had the answer to that question, you know, I'd be a lot smarter than I am.

SAVIDGE: This military action would only exacerbate this problem?

BEYER: Well, this is a conundrum. It is certainly true that any action that we take is going to -- any military action, is going to further inflame Islamic radicals. There's no doubt about that.

On the other hand, the depth of the atrocity was so profound, obviously, we can't sit back and let it pass.

I mean, I think it's important to bear in mind that before the Gulf War, there was a lot of speculation that when the United States attacked an Islamic, an Arab country, namely Iraq, that the Arab street would go berserk and that there'd be a great revolution against the United States and anti-sentiment would, you know, just be overwhelming. And that didn't happen.

So I think we have to be a little bit skeptical about similar predictions.

Now on the other hand, the war in Iraq was over very fast. And we proceeded in the war very quickly and achieved our objectives very quickly. And it stung the Arab world. They expected the Iraqis to put up a much tougher fight. It's very clear we're not going to have a similar military victory in Afghanistan quickly.

And so there is here, you know, much more potential for anti- American sentiment to grow and to build and to fester.

SAVIDGE: Lisa Beyer, very interesting, but also somewhat worrisome. Thank you. Thank you very much for joining us, Lisa Beyer with "Time" magazine.

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