Occidentophobia in the West.

Blaming Ourselves: September 11 and the Agony of the Left, edited by Imre Salusinszky and Gregory Melleuish; Duffy & Snellgrove, 2002, $22.

"FAR FROM BEING the terrorists of the world, the Islamic peoples have been its victims--that is, the victims of American fundamentalism, whose power, in all its forms, military, strategic and economic, is the greatest source of terrorism on earth." This quote--from John Pilger in the New Statesman of 13th September 2001--is one of the clearest expressions of hostility to the United States in the Western media in recent times. It is, however, by no means unusual. The appendix to this book sets out many of the more startling examples from Australian publications in the wake of September 11.

It is not easy to choose from this exotic collection. But one favourite must be Michael Leunig's plea in the Age for Australians to "find a place in our heart for the humanity of Osama bin Laden". Or Phillip Adams in the Australian: "Confusing itself with the sanitised representations in Disney theme parks, the US failed to see that it has always been among the most violent nations on earth." Or Joanna Murray-Smith, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, who found real fear not in the "caves of Afghanistan" but in "the buildings of Canberra". Many of the comments were not just anti-American. They reflected an apparent preference for bloodthirsty dictatorships in Iraq and Iran over Western democratic governments--and profound contempt for liberal values.

Another common theme was a complete ignorance of modern history. Bob Ellis, for example, writing in the Canberra Times, considered that the bombing of Dresden and the use of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were terrorist acts and much worse ones than September 11. While no rational person would take any pleasure in the death of civilians, those events occurred in the course of the efforts of the Allies to defend themselves against a near-successful attempt at world domination by Germany and Japan. A minor matter, no doubt, to Mr Ellis but of significance to any historian.

The twenty-one essays in the book are essentially a reaction to these--often predominant--strains in many of the groups who consider themselves on the left in Australia and their fellow travellers in the Australian media.

History is also one of the themes of Owen Harries' contribution. He makes the point that, although terrorism has sometimes been the weapon of the weak, on September 11 it was the product of the wealthy elites of some Middle Eastern regimes. Harries also rejects the theory--which he attributes in part to Woodrow Wilson--that hostility between nations or groups is a result of misunderstanding and ignorance rather than of genuine conflicts of interest. He notes that nowhere is this less true than in the war between Israel and the Palestinians. Both understand perfectly well what the stakes are--for the Israelis, survival, and for the Palestinians, the total destruction of their enemy. Harries prefers what he calls the "Jacksonian tradition" in American history, which is prepared to act forcefully when national security is genuinely involved.

The theory of the just war is discussed by Sam Roggeveen, who suggests that modern technology--particularly precision-bombing as employed in the Gulf War and in Kosovo--is likely to lessen civilian casualties. Like many weapons, however, this is not normally an option for dealing with terrorists.