Orientalism Can Be Discussed And Analyzed As

The People Who Perpetrated The Terror Of The World Trade Center And Pentagon Bombings Are Something Different Because These People Were Obviously Not Desperate And Poor Refugee Dwellers. They Were Middle Class, Educated Enough To Speak English, To Be Able To Go To Flight School, To Come To America, To Live In Florida.

All The Words That George Bush Used In Public During The Early Stages Of The Crisis - "wanted, Dead Or Alive," "a Crusade," Etc. - Suggest Not So Much An Orderly And Considered Progress Towards Bringing The Man To Justice According To International Norms, But Rather Something Apocalyptic, Something Of The Order Of The Criminal Atrocity Itself. That Will Make Matters A Lot, Lot Worse, Because There Are Always Consequences.

Take A Young Man From Gaza Living In The Most Horrendous Conditions - Most Of It Imposed By Israel - Who Straps Dynamite Around Himself And Then Throws Himself Into A Crowd Of Israelis. I've Never Condoned Or Agreed With It, But At Least It Is Understandable As The Desperate Wish Of A Human Being Who Feels Himself Being Crowded Out Of Life And All Of His Surroundings, Who Sees His Fellow Citizens, Other Palestinians, His Parents, Sisters, And Brothers, Suffering, Being Injured, Or Being Killed. He Wants To Do Something, To Strike Back.

The History Of Other Cultures Is Non-existent Until It Erupts In Confrontation With The United States.

The Orient That Appears In Orientalism, Then, Is A System Of Representations Framed By A Whole Set Of Forces That Brought The Orient Into Western Learning, Western Consciousness, And Later, Western Empire.... The Orient Is The Stage On Which The Whole East Is Confined. On This Stage Will Appear The Figures Whose Role It Is To Represent The Larger Whole From Which They Emenate. The Orient Then Seems To Be, Not An Unlimited Extension Beyond The Familiar European World, But Rather A Closed Field, A Theatrical Stage Affixed To Europe.