I realize that’s (almost?) a blasphemous thing to say so let me state clearly for the record that this is solely my opinion and not that of the “left”, “liberals” or anyone else. Just me.
I also need to clarify that just because I don’t hate them doesn’t mean I love them or support them either, because I don’t.
Do I hate the Zero pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941? No. Do I hate the Luftwaffe pilots who bombed the civilian areas of London over and over during the “Blitz”? No. I don’t love them or support them, should any of them still be alive, but I don’t hate them either.
Or maybe you think I should hate Colonel Paul Tibbets? Or Major Charles Sweeney? Or Sir Norman Bottomly?
What about Menachem Begin? Should I harbor hatred for him? Or Hasan di Tiro? Or Xanana Gusmão? What about Subcomandante Marcos? Or what say you about Isaias Afewerki or Agim Ceku? Or maybe even Michel Aoun or Sean Mac Stiofain.
The truth is I do not hate any of those people even though all of them have the blood of innocents on their hands. The difference between the 9/11 hijackers and Tibbets or Begin is simply a matter of perspective. If you think they committed murder for a “noble” cause then they are your heroes. If you abhor the shedding of innocent blood then Gusmão and Afewerki should be as condemned as Mahmoud al-Zahar and Manuel Marulanda Velez are.
I realize it sounds like a bit of a rhetorical shell game to say there is little rational difference between the Pearl Harbor and World Trade Center bombers, but the truth is that both acts were committed by dedicated men who thought that killing innocents was the right thing to do for a “greater cause”. Tibbits and Sweeney killed innocents for a “greater cause” as well. So what’s the difference?
What’s the difference between the deaths of Sgts. Kenneth Ford and James Goins and the infant Hanna Qaddafi? Is the killing of one “justified” and the other an atrocity simply because of the nationality of the man exploding the bomb in question?
There is a group of people whom I do hate and it isn’t the terrorists. The terrorists and their murder of civilians I wholeheartedly condemn. But the terrorists never promised to protect me.
The terrorists never looked me in the eye and said they were my friend, my guide and my benefactor.
The terrorists never condemned the abridgement of civil rights while simultaneously coddling the most fearsome dictators in the Islamic world.
The terrorists never took away or abridged a single one of my civil rights “in my name” or “for my own good”.
The terrorists (despite the rhetoric) never condemned my lifestyle or those of other freedom-loving people, nor did they ever seek to outlaw it or make it “scandalous” or shameful.
The terrorists never stifled my free expression, never stole my vote, and never used my taxes as subsidies for their corporate partners.
The terrorists never suspended habeus corpus or kept my fellow citizens in indefinite detention.
The terrorists committed acts of violence that maimed and killed but it was not they who, day in and day out for more than 5 years now, sought to keep me afraid. The terrorists killed but it was not they who have worked themselves into a frenzy to keep my fellow Americans terrorized.
No, for that we have only the current administration to thank. We have the current administration to thank for killing more Americans than the terrorists did five years ago. We have the administration to thank for bankrupting the United States, morally, spiritually AND financially, not the terrorists.
The absolute worst that any terrorist can do is injure another human being, kill another human being or cause damage to property. That is awful and horrible and evil enough unto itself, but it is the limit of their powers. I thoroughly condemn their acts and their hateful rhetoric but I do not hate them.
I reserve my ire and wrath for those who have caused far more damage to my country in every sense of the word while simultaneously grinning, making jokes and playing the guitar with a wink and a smile. And all of this with the apparent approval of half the country and 95% of the corporate media.
You know, if I could meet Osama bin Laden for just five minutes, I know exactly what I’d ask him. “How did you know that so many Americans were just itching for a chance to live in fear and paranoia and endless war that is endlessly expensive, and that your acts on 9/11/01 were just a timely excuse?”. How did he know?
Pax
I don’t hate them. To many of those you mentioned, including Usama, I’m simply indiferent. Like they say, “don’t cry for me Mother F……”
i’d ask him if he believed in Jesus because he is about to meet him.
I may be wrong, but didn’t UBL repeatedly deny having anything to do with 9/11 until he got a camcorder for his birthday?
I may be wrong, but didn’t UBL repeatedly deny having anything to do with 9/11 until he got a camcorder for his birthday?
Shhh… don’t you know even Peter denied Jesus three times? You can’t listen to ObL when he doesn’t conform to the official script!
Pax
I crave the luxury of hating them.
Truly, I want them to be my problem.
You and everyone’s brother, that’s for sure… I only wish it was that easy… phew.
Pax
I hate George W. Bush and his entire family.
I hate Dick Cheney.
I hate the entire Bush Regime.
I hate that I have to keep my head on a swivel due to some “christian” family in a minivan with their “I Support the Troops” schwag and their “God Hates Faggots” and “Kill them all and let God sort em out” stickers.
I HATE that this country of mine has been lazy, apathetic and too damn worried about Monday Night Footbal and American Idol to give a rats ass about the Constitution or Human Decency.
I hate that women, children and men are being slaughtered in every corner of the world and that Americans have been left to drown and be barraced in Fema “camps” with prison wire around them… while the rich get richer and the poor keep clicking their remote controls.
Damn straight I hate the terrorists, Soj, because the terrorists is running the USA.
You nailed it Soj. It’s the betrayal of everything America supposedly stands for.
It’s the deliberate instillation of fear to gain the power to carry out wanton killing of innocents for political,economic gain.
It’s instilling enough fear to make us all sit by and allow the to totally basterdization the Constitution, in order to gain unchecked power over all of us.
It is the perverted, predatory behavior of a sexually abusive father, who exploits his role and his power as a parent, who see’s it as his right to rape his own child, and then enforce thier silence.
The administration wants everyone too scared to disagree with their policies. The VP openly says as much. It boils down to this, the administration “hates freedom”. They have more power then the cave-dwelling terrorists ever had or will have and they hate freedom. Fear and hate they love its freedom that bothers Bush, Cheney and company. Freedom to debate their flawed policies or deny their version of morality. It sucks bush hates freedom.
I hate what they’ve done to this country.
I hate that I, a patriotic American who loves his country, has to defend himself just because he’s a “liberal.”
I hate that my rights have been abridged, my freedoms cut back, and my life made incredibly more complicated under the Cheney Crime Cabal.
Hating them as individuals, however, is more of an emotional investment than I am prepared to make. Because, you see, hate and love are really two sides of the same coin. I have already granted them enough emotional control over my life. I don’t want to cede any more of my time or thoughts to them than I already have.
Besides, I belong to a religion that teaches, “It is said that you should love your friends and hate your enemies. But I’m telling you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who persecute you. . . . If you just love your friends and hate your enemies, what good does it do you? Even tax collectors do that!”
If nothing else, loving your enemies drives them crazy.
I hasten to state that again, as Soj says, that doesn’t mean I support them or that they shouldn’t be punished for their actions. Far from it. I would love nothing better than to see the entire administration hauled up before a war crimes tribunal and have their names go down in history alongside Benedict Arnold’s. But I’m not doing it because I hate them. I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do, and because it will hopefully be a deterrent to those who would try to loot and pillage this country in the future and deprive its citizens of those rights and freedoms that have been ours since the beginning.
Dear Omir, you’re one of the few people that I can feel safe with discussing anything “religious” with as nowadays religion is a major hotkey and people get so angry and lose relationships or worse… over.
So let me state that I do agree with the fact that I moreso hate what those people have DONE than are… but… for me… I also hate them. Do I feel this is in conflict with my desire for Peace? No. Do I hate them with a burning fire of some Biblical porportion? No.
My family is very “religious”. They live to HATE all because God loves them.
I can not “love” Bush or Cheney or Hitler… and say that while I do everything to stop them from killing scores of people.
Many people tell me that I must love those very people who are doing everything they can to take my rights away.
I do not hate the people in the street who throw their big gulp at me. I don not hate the people who drive by and call me and my kids “Nazi fuckers”… I do not hate the people who think this war will bring them economical security.
I hate the bastards of war who are creating so much bloodshed and who are destroying this country and it’s freedoms.
I think for me – showing your enemies love – means being tolerant… and I know due to your words above that is not you either.
But I’m just so tired that people think if you stand for peace that means you will stand by and let people shit on you and you’ll still love them. I’ve had this talk with another friend… I’m not Ghandi, I’m not Jesus…
and I don’t have any feeling of love for the Bush Regime or other Hitlers.
For me hate is not this strong word…love is. I’ve grappled with the hate/anger issue and how to still march for Peace… and I don’t think it’s an oxymoron.
I donn’t feel “love” when I see the barbed wire camps in Louisiana, I don’t feel love for Bush when I see all the dead children in Iraq. I love Peace, I love children.. that is why I want to see Bush inc behind bars. THAT.. I will love. An end to this suffering.
(I do love you)
I am told or manipulated to hate in this life.