Eric Margolis is a long- time reporter on the Islamic world, a columnist for the Toronto Sun and other popular tabloids, and one of the now-large cohort of anti-American polemicists. His latest book, American Raj: Liberation or Domination?, is an extended diatribe against what he sees as American domination of the Islamic world.
Every major event produces its stream of processed words, and this has been doubly true of the spectacular Islamist attacks of 9/11 and the consequent American counter- attack. Margolis is one of many who seek to tell us what is really going on and—a distinct exercise—who is really to blame.
His answer to the first question is that the Americans are running things in their own discreditable interests, and this leads easily to his desired conclusion that the fault for the attacks lies ultimately with the United States:
The attacks of September 11, 2001, did not come out...
Mark F. Proudman works in Ottawa. He holds a doctorate in imperial history from Oxford University.
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