Who better to understand Muslims’ anger than ourselves?
"It is because He taught the ideal without devising any practical means of attaining it. That is why I am proposing a practical scheme to carry out His aims."
This practical scheme was a kind of world government in the form of the League of Nations, which was the forerunner of the present UN.
Wilson outlined his plans in his famous Fourteen Points. Cabot Lodge, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, derided the Fourteen Points by noting that God only had Ten Commandments.
The US became involved in the First World War as part of Wilson's maniacal plan to improve on Christ. Trying to stop the communists became part it.
He actually sent US troops into Russia in 1918 to help overthrow the communists. This was a struggle against atheistic communism that was to mark US politics throughout of the rest of the century.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attack, George W Bush resorted to the same kind of sentiments as Woodrow Wilson. He made the mistake of calling for a kind of crusade, which was highly insensitive.
It is reminiscent of the naive insensitivity of John Foster Dulles, US Secretary of State in the 1950s, who said he could not understand why the Arabs and Israelis could not sit down and settle their differences in a Christian spirit. Bush accused the 9/11 bombers of being cowards. They were dreadfully misguided, but they were not cowards. They clearly had the courage of their convictions.
To listen to some of the talk now about Muslim fanatics, you would think that militant Muslims are the first people who have been driven by radical religious beliefs, and that they introduced the suicide bomb. The Japanese kamikaze pilots were suicide bombers who flew their explosive laden planes into Allied ships.
The kamikazes were driven by the same kind of religious fervour, convinced that their sacrifice would result in instant salvation in the afterlife. Last week, on the RTÉ's Sunday Show, Tom McGurk interviewed an Arab expert who tried to go back to the 11th century to explain the current situation, but Tom cut him off, obviously in the belief that they did not have the time to go back that far. When Tom called on the expert again, he jumped to the 16th century and got cut short again.
It seems Muslims have grievances going back over 1,000 years, but we do not have time to listen to them. Some of the things done in the name of Christianity were outrageous, and maybe if people would consider the Inquisition in Spain, it might help to explain to some degree why al-Qaida singled out Madrid.
Of course, that does not excuse such behaviour. I can almost hear you ask what something that happened 400 or 500 years ago has to do with the present day? Nobody wants to hear whingeing about things that occurred in the 16th century! But we should understand such whingeing better than most because we have been doing it for centuries.
Last week there was rioting in Belfast about something that happened in 1691. This was not just a once-off incident; they seem to do it every year.
The sick yobs who desecrated the minute's silence at Croke Park for the London bombing victims dishonoured the GAA. They are a disgrace to the Irish nation and a blight on humanity.
During the Second World War the American military newspaper, Stars and Stripes, had a cartoon in its Northern Ireland edition. It was of glum individual looking over the half-door of his cottage as two American soldiers were passing by.
"Who's he mad at Hitler?" one of the soldiers asked.
"No. Cromwell," the other replied.
Irish people were killed and injured in the recent London bombings. All of the victims were innocent.
Even the bombers themselves were probably misguided idealists who were manipulated by the same evil ilk who were responsible for the recent suicide bombing in Baghdad in which 32 Muslim children were blown up in a crazed attempt to kill some American soldiers who were giving out sweets.
IF THE Americans had done that, our peaceniks would go ape. Why are they so silent now? People may differ about the distorted way the Americans initially tried to justify their involvement in Iraq, but there can be no doubt that Saddam's removal was a service to humanity.
Some people have argued that the UN should have been allowed to resolve the problems in Iraq, but few could have confidence in that organisation to act effectively. In the past week we had a grim reminder of the dismal failure of the UN to protect the Muslim men and boys of Srebrenica, who were massacred while under the supposed protection of the UN. The London bombing was probably intended to undermine the British government in the same way that the Spanish government was ousted following the train bombings in Madrid.
But Spain does not have a long tradition of democracy, and the Madrid government made the mistake of lying to the people. They tried to suppress evidence of al-Qaida involvement and blamed ETA, the Basque separatists, for the bombings.
The Spanish people rightly turned on those who tried to exploit the bombings for their own political advantage. It would be like Tony Blair trying to blame the IRA for last week's bombings. If those responsible knew anything about British history, they should have realised that their tactics were likely to be counterproductive.
The Germans only boosted the determination of the British people to resist with their bombing of London during the second world war. In comparison with the Blitz, the latest bombings were mere pinpricks.
It had looked like the usual rioting around the G8 summit would be big news last week. This had a potential to damage the British government, but after the bombing, the protesters disappeared and the news from the summit was of unanimous support for the Blair government and utter condemnation of the bombings.
The British police would seem to have done a magnificent job in detecting those who were carrying the bombs. They made great use of CCTV cameras.
We have those cameras scattered around this country, but when something happens one frequently hears that they are not turned on. The gardaí, who have repeatedly complained about being under-resourced, have been slow to use the cameras or their new computer system. Instead, they have been more intent on demanding extra pay to use the new technology. It would seem that the gardaí have much to learn, especially in the light of their outrageous behaviour in Donegal and what has been coming out about the events surrounding the death of young Brian Rossiter in Clonmel in 2002.
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