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Comment by YZF | Hacker News Reader

Who did the US bomb before 9/11? Who did the US bomb before Pearl Harbor? Who did the US bomb before its embassies in East Africa were attacked? https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/east-african-embass... Who did the US bomb before https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103 ?

I would love for nobody to bomb or kill anyone. Did Ukraine bomb Russia? Is Taiwan bombing China that declares it is going to take Taiwan by force?

There isn't a single conflict in the world today where I can see that someone can just say "we're going to stop" and they'll be safe. There is always something more to it. If Ukraine says we'll just stop attacking Russian soldiers is that war over? If Russia says we'll just stop attacking Ukraine and stay where we are is that war over? Is there any other conflict where the answer is simply stop and it'll be fine?

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> Who did the US bomb before 9/11?

Iraq, during the Gulf War.

> Who did the US bomb before Pearl Harbor?

Japan, though the US didn't bomb them, it instituted an oil embargo and asset freeze.

> Who did the US bomb before its embassies in East Africa were attacked

Iraq, during the Gulf War.

> Who did the US bomb before https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103 ?

Tripoli and Benghazi, Iran Air Flight 655.

I don't understand the purpose of these questions. Were you thinking the US was just minding its own business and some bad guys came and attacked it?

The US are also the major enabler of Israel's colonial expansion and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. This was clearly expressed by Bin Laden himself as one of the motives behind the 9/11 attacks.

> Were you thinking the US was just minding its own business and some bad guys came and attacked it

As I remember, this was exactly the way the US explained 9/11: "they hate us for our freedom".

Sure, but I'd hope any commenter here would be smart enough to not believe such a facile explanation.

Yeah, he also justified it by citing the US's acceptance of homosexuality so maybe it's more complicated than that.

No, he didn't. His "letter to America" starts with the question:

"As for the first question: Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is very simple:

Because you attacked us and continue to attack us."

And proceeds to list all the ways the US are militarily attacking and oppressing Muslims in the Middle East. It's a long list.

Homosexuality is mentioned only once in the letter, in the next section, where he criticises American society and morals in general and calls it to embrace Islam. This is explicitly an exhortation and not part of the reasons for the attacks (so probably intended as a diagnosis of the symptoms of a moral disease and the proposal of a cure - note that I'm not endorsing it, just explaining its function in the letter).

> Who did the US bomb before 9/11?

Korea, Vietnam, Laos...

Bombing Korea led to bin Laden attacking on 9/11?

You did not read that GP was saying. He's saying that many conflicts are not started because US bombed a place.

Yugoslavia?

Before 9/11:

Afghanistan

Yugoslavia

Before 98:

Libya

Panama

Iraq

Kuwait

Somalia

Bosnia

Iran

Sudan

Afghanistan

Before 88:

Korea

China

Guatemala

Indonesia

Cuba

Guatemala

Belgian Congo

Guatemala

Dominican Republic

Peru

Laos

Vietnam

Cambodia

Guatemala

Lebanon

Grenada

Libya

El Salvador

Nicaragua

Iran

Japan

Before Pearl Harbor:

Dominican Republic

Nicaragua

China

Mexico

Russia

Wow, that's a lot of bombs! Hope this helps.

> Who did the US bomb before 9/11? Who did the US bomb before Pearl Harbor?

Right, they just hate the US because of their freedoms.

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