The disasters at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania countryside have jarred all Americans, including those of us overseas. My son and I are in Xiamen, China, where I am teaching American literature on a U.S. Fulbright grant, and we and our American neighbors are experiencing the same psychological shock as people at home. It’s hard to focus on our work. Different kinds of grief and disorientation overcome us at odd moments. We watch the news, talk about what happened, what is to come, what is expected of us as Americans abroad.

The mood in China, as in most of the world, is one of shock. Chinese friends and colleagues have expressed their sympathies for the families of the dead thousands, and bewilderment about the minds that conceive, not to mention carry out those massacres. Chinese news programs aired updates and films of crashing airliners too often for us. They showed Chinese officials reiterating that “China has always opposed terrorism,” and report President Jiang Zemin’s sympathy for the U.S. families and government.

The Chinese government has been low-key about its part in fighting terrorism. One reason for this is that China maintains borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which Professor L.M. Handrahan recently described in the BDN. China, itself with a large Muslim population, the Hui, does not want to be drawn into a war involving Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Another reason China was cautious about joining President Bush’s muster of anti-terrorist nations is that the Chinese, while shocked by the attacks, also understand the attackers are not simply raving lunatics, but have motives. A friend in Shanghai expressed Chinese feelings in a touching and succinct e-mail message:

“On CCTV I saw the crash, the fire and the collapsing of the two towers and the damaged Pentagon. I understand what the catastrophic act brings to American people both in body and mind. I think everyone who has a sense of conscience will be on USA side on condemning the terrorists no matter what USA once did to other countries. My condolence is for those who lost their beloved ones. I hope you and your family are safe and sound.”

The words of my friend Guxiang should be appreciated as an expression of sympathy felt in most of the world. But not accidentally, he includes the phrase, “no matter what [the] USA once did to other countries.” This should make us pause. It means that while terrorism is not condoned, many people in the world nonetheless understand there are reasons for resentment and even hatred of America. It means that the terrorists, no matter how mad they were, or how unconscionable their acts, had motivations.

What were those motivations? How can America be seen by some as “the great Satan”? What seeds led to monstrous growths in the terrorists’ minds? And why does so much of the resentment reside in the Middle East and Central Asia?

I can’t easily answer these questions. But it seems prudent to notice that Guxiang’s words specify that recognizing motivations for the attacks is completely different from condoning the attacks.

It’s easier for him to recognize the motivations than it is for us, and this makes me realize how little I know about the rest of the world. Since the disasters, I have been thinking of my education in history. In school, Greece, Rome, Europe’s Renaissance occupied our exams; we learned a detailed version of American history. We learned a bit about Ottoman Turkey, India and China.

We learned that Arabs used to be called Moors and almost overran Europe on the inspiration of Muhammad, until they were stopped in Spain; and that today’s Arab countries hold most of the world’s oil. Only much later did I realize that Arab science, philosophy and religious thought changed the course of European culture, an influence mostly unrecognized in Western education, possibly because we feel the Arab world is our general enemy.

I recall from my education phrases such as, “The Turks came originally from Central Asia,” and China’s Great Wall was built “to defend against invaders from Central Asia.” But we never heard anything about the invaders themselves, as though that region of vast plains and giant mountains were an empty swamp from which barbarians materialized like mosquitoes.

Central Asia gets almost no attention in schools, even though the past of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, as well as what was once known as Persia – Iran and Iraq – could hold the keys to understanding 3,000 years of our own history. The Silk Road, perhaps the most dynamic trading complex of all time, ran from China to Rome, passing directly through the powerful cities and cultures north of India.

The point is that Middle Eastern terrorists do not materialize from the desert with spontaneous plans to murder Americans. A complex history of cultural, political and commercial interactions tightly links North America with Afghanistan and the rest of the Muslim world. A history which most of us rarely pay attention to. Until now.

Now, the terrorists have gotten our attention by starting a war. A key element in winning a war is understanding your opponent and as we gather ourselves to demolish the terrorists, which we must do, part of our weaponry should be an understanding of who they are and what motivates them. This will help us to distinguish our friends – including Muslims – from our enemies during the fight, and to better cooperate afterward. Recognizing the motivations might in the long run provide ways of forestalling future atrocities.

Even in China, about as far away as you can get, the massacres in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania are intimately felt by everyone, for both historical and personal reasons. Let us eliminate the terrorists as decisively as possible. And let us understand our Arab and Asian neighbors better afterward.

Dana Wilde, a former editor at the Bangor Daily News, is a U.S. Fulbright senior lecturer in American literature at Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.