--- David Hobby <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Well, it did do a lot to cause the attack. And not > by harmlessly distributing Britney Spears videos, > either. > Some of being targeted was because America was > "walking point" > for the West in general. But the US has done a lot > of > selfish things to make other countries mad at it > over the > years.
Why do you think that Osama bin Laden objects to the same things about American foreign policy that you do? In all seriousness, why do you think that his objection is things that you define as "selfish" - although others may not, of course. Given what he supports, and what his supporters support, how does one follow from the other? > Like it or not, if your policies make some people > angry enough to kill themselves to show their > displeasure, > you need to rethink your policies. But this is not > a very > popular thing to say, and the Left does have some > political > sense. Why? This is a moral non sequitur. Suicide bombers don't act the way we do because _we_ are evil, they act the way they do because _they_ are evil. Failing to understand that simple fact is why the Left has had little or nothing to contribute on the issue of terrorism. It seems like there is this absolute inability to conceive that someone other than the United States could be wrong and in the wrong. > I would like for the US to really be a champion of > human rights THROUGHOUT the world, not just when and > where > it was politically convenient. We could > rehabilitate our > reputation, and earn broad respect by doing this-- > consistently and courageously doing good for a > change. What makes you think that the people who attack us would be in favor of us promoting human rights? Do _they_ ever promote human rights? > But this is an abstract and long-term agenda, and > many Americans simply do not care about the rest of > the > world enough to support it. > > ---David David, as far as I understand your argument, it boils down to, if the US acted the way you wanted to, it would remove the incentive on the part of terrorists to attack us. You seem to think that _they_ object to the same things about the US that _you_ do. As both a rhetorical approach and a strategic policy I don't see it. _They_ claim that their problem with the United States is existential, not political. They object not to what we _do_, but what we _are_. Al Qaeda published a list of demands in the Arabic press - the first one was that the attacks would stop when everyone in the US converted to Islam. Hamas, to pick another group of suicide bombers, is open that the purpose of their attacks is to _destroy Israel_. Not to end the occupation as anything more than a first step - they want to kill all the Jews in the world. If you don't believe me, why not them? Would you have told the Jews of the 1940s that they needed to understand why they were hated? The victims of Stalin's purges? Mao's? What George Bush understands - but what all the so-called intellectuals who claim to be smarter than him apparently don't - is that simple fact. This isn't about us, it's about our enemies. Not about what we do, but who we are. The point of Afghanistan was to deny them a base to operate. The point of Iraq was two-fold - to deny them the weapons that might have made our destruction possible, and to make possible a change in the culture that harbors and supports the terrorists. Either reason would have been necessary and sufficient for the war - both were a nice benefit. We aren't dealing with an opponent that wants rational things - we are dealing with a pathology. This isn't about giving them what they want so that they go away. It's about killing them before they kill us, because one of those two things is going to happen just as surely as the tides. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
