Vowed to back?

1) Does "vowed to back" mean "vowed to support"?
2) Does "lay the entire blame for such attitudes upon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_the_United_States" mean "such Islamic attitudes are inflicted/caused by U.S. foreign policy and so the United States should be blamed"?

Background info (1):

Yemen[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Muslim_attitudes_towards_terrorism&action=edit§ion=5]

In November 2010, thousands of Yemeni tribesmen vowed to back the government's efforts in its battles against http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda and promised to fight alongside the troops. Chieftain Naji bin Abdul-Aziz al-Shaif of the northern powerful Bakeel tribe and the organizer of the rally stated: "We will fight against al-Qaida group as it harmed the reputation of the country, Yemeni tribes and Muslims...We expressed our sorrow to all countries and people who were harmed by al-Qaida and we demanded President Ali Abdullah Saleh to handle the situation and we will stand by him."^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_attitudes_towards_terrorism#cite_note-19}

Background info (2)

Among the controversial aspects of The End of Faith is an uncompromising assessment and criticism of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam, which Harris describes as being a "cult of death." He infers a clear link between Islamic teaching and terrorist atrocities such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks, a notion he supports with quotations from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qur%27an that call for the use of violence.
He also presents data from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pew_Research_Center, purporting to show that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_attitudes_towards_terrorism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_attack as a legitimate tactic.^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Faith#cite_note-5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Faith#cite_note-6} In an attack on what he terms "leftist unreason," Harris criticises http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky among others for, in his view, displaying an illogical willingness to lay the entire blame for such attitudes upon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_the_United_States.