One more thing:
This guy is essentially making the same point I was, only a good bit more
eloquently.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2001/09/12/blowback/index.html
Steve Catanzaro wrote:
> You mean, unjust things like supporting Israel's right to exist? Checking
> Sadaam Hussein's lust for unfettered power and control over the Arab world,
> including probably those very territories which harbor terrorists? Precisely
> what "unjust thing" did America do to the people / states / despots /
> terrorist / dictators/ cowards / racist / bigot thugs who committed /
> sponsored these acts?
>
> To those calling for compromise; compromise with who, and on what points?
> Compromise with those who advocate the complete destruction of the state of
> Israel? How, exactly, are we to do that, without complicity in both
> anti-Semitism and genocide?
>
> So, we trained underground Afghanis to defend themselves against the
> invading occupying Russian army. Most Americans at the time thought that was
> a good idea. They have now turned this knowlege against us. Might as well
> blame Embry-Riddle university for teaching men to fly, or Leonard da Vinci,
> for dreaming that one day they might be able to.
>
> I realize that moral equivalence may be the hip, quasi intellectual
> philosophy of the day, but I suggest its time to *wake up* and recognize
> that evil exists in the world, and its manifestation has hardly been more
> palpable since the 3rd Reich...
>
> I also submit that "many Americans do not realize" just how many people
> around the world, even in the very same countries where people were jumping
> for joy at the thought of American civilians jumping out of 100 story
> buildings, would give anything for the chance to be American citizens.
> America may be the most hated place on earth, but it is also the most loved.
> That, too, is simply a bit of perspective.
>
> The point, as I took it, was that for many Americans, it is
> > important to realize that we helped train and create the power-structure
> for
> > these "monsters," and left unsaid, but I think implied, is that while
> > yesterday's attacks are some of the most evil, awful things we've ever
> seen, the
> > US *has* done many unjust things that have inspired hatred of us in the
> rest of
> > the world. Many Americans do not realize that. It's simply a bit of
> > perspective.
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