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Tiger Tracker
(71.187.89.208) on 9/11/2007 - 12:41 p.m. says: ( 27 views
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"I understand and appreciate the sentiment"
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Edited by Author at 9/11/2007 - 1:06 p.m.
But I can't agree with your logic. There is nothing about the definition of America that requires us to house troops on the Arabian peninsula. There is nothing about the definition of America that requires us to support the oppressive Saudi royal family that much of the population fears or even hates (it is no coincidence that OBL is and almost all of the 9/11 hihackers were Saudi).
America is not just our military. It is not just our energy need. It is not just our power. America is an experiment in representative government where the power comes from the people and is subject to checks and balances. Those checks and balances limit the power not only of the government, but of the people to use government to oppress unpopular thoughts, actions, and persons among us.
We were not attacked on 9/11 for any of those features of our great country. In fact, we were not attacked for any of the other overly-simplistic reasons that are often used to explain the events of 9/11 in purely emotional terms. The attackers are not 2-dimensional, maniacal bogeymen from a horror film who are out to destroy our civilization for no reason other than the plot requires some purely evil characters. No one in the world can rightly defend the hijackers' actions -- and you certainly won't find me doing so -- but their actions are capable of intellectual scrutiny in order to understand what motivated them to do such an awful thing. Engaging in such intellectual scrutiny isn't "blaming America" or disloyal to the victims of the attack. It is most rational response to the attack, and nothing more.
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But I can't agree with your logic. There is nothing about the definition of America that requires us to house troops on the Arabian peninsula. There is nothing about the definition of America that requires us to support the oppressive Saudi royal family that much of the population fears or even hates (it is no coincidence that OBL is and almost all of the 9/11 hihackers were Saudi).
America is not just our military. It is not just our energy need. It is not just our power. America is an experiment in representative government where the power comes from the people and is subject to checks and balances. Those checks and balances limit the power not only of the government, but of the people to use government to oppress unpopular thoughts, actions, and persons among us.
We were not attacked on 9/11 for any of those features of our great country. In fact, we were not attacked for any of the other overly-simplistic reasons that are often used to explain the events of 9/11 in purely emotional terms. The attackers are not 2-dimensional, maniacal bogeymen from a horror film who are out to destroy our civilization for no reason other than the plot requires some purely evil characters. No one in the world can rightly defend the hijackers' actions -- and you certainly won't find me doing so -- but their actions are capable of intellectual scrutiny in order to understand what motivated them to do such an awful thing. Engaging in such intellectual scrutiny isn't "blaming America" or disloyal to the victims of the attack. It is most rational response to the attack, and nothing more.
Let's remember what happened on 9/11, but let's remember it in three dimensional terms, not as a rallying cry for misguided jingoistic revenge against persons/groups/countries wholly unrelated to 9/11 or as carte blanche justification for any aggressive activity in which some among us may want to engage.
Just my opinion.
TT
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