To the editor:
Re: One W.T.C.’s many meanings, some visible and some not (Downtown Express article, Aug. 31)
Aline Reynolds’s article on the World Trade Center, about its “many meanings and the symbolism and sustainability that define the building,” just tells readers its shape, structure and design and fails to give any historical and political context to the tragedy. Al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, from a wealthy Saudi family, resented the U.S. military in Saudi Arabia as well as U.S. support for Israel.
When the Soviet presence in Afghanistan after its revolution, Osama and the Taliban were supplied stringer missiles, rockets and other weapons as well as intelligence by the C.I.A. This was done in 1980, when Carter sent his national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski to the Afghan-Pakistan border.
The U.S. made it possible for Al Qaeda and the Taliban to spread enormous violence and death first in Afghanistan, then at the W.T.C. This disastrous U.S. foreign policy started by Jimmy Carter through the two Bushes, and Obama.
Dave Silver
