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Terrorist Activities Findings We have seen that in the cour

d to claim responsibility--and, therefore, no state or group attached its agenda to the anxieties among Western air travellers that the bombing provoked. To the West, the bombing was simply another example of "Middle Eastern terrorism," undifferentiated by any more specific political identity or association.

By not claiming responsibility, it may be argued, the bombers also avoid taking any blame, and are free from retaliation. This, however, is not actually the case. The United States, as noted earlier, officially accused Libya. Had this accusation been followed by a bombing strike against Libyan targets, the American public, at least, would probably have approved, while reaction elsewhere might have accorded more closely to general attitudes toward the United States than to any evaluation of the validity of the American accusations.

The suspicion lingers, indeed, that the United States identified Libya as the responsible party in part because Libya would have been such a convenient target for military retaliation, had such a course of action been decided upon. Libya, located in a relatively exposed position on the Mediterranean coast, is much more vulnerable to American air strikes than is, say, Syria, while Iran is nearly inaccessible to American air power. Moreover, Moammar Kadafi is on the one hand a readily identifiable villain-figure to the American public, while on the other hand he is not viewed by policy makers as a critical player in Middle Eastern power politics--as is, for example, Syria's Assad. (Kadafi's image is a point to which we will return below.) Kadafi and Libya would have been nearly "free" targets for politically satisfying American retaliation, whereas neither Syria nor Iran could have been struck so easily, with so little risk to the United States either militarily or politically.

The bombing of Pan Am 103 thus put Kadafi and Libya at some risk, whether they were the guilty parties or not. ...

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Terrorist Activities Findings We have seen that in the cour. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 11:59, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1704000.html