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