"Whether their view of geopolitics is correct or not, it's clear that America was attacked because it believes in freedom and individual liberty" Maybe it does, but to think that America was attacked for that reason is incredibly simplistic, the kind of thinking that makes the United States so vilified worldwide. While you are probably right that bin Laden and company (or whoever did this) may not know/care about the finer points of the various positions (Kyoto, the Durban conference, etc.) of the Bush administration Moore cited, the fact is that US foreign policy since he took office has been one middle finger after another extended to the rest of the world, be it the Middle East, Europe, or anywhere else. Not only did the United States create the bin Laden monster, they had a hand in the creation of nearly every monster (Saddam Hussein, the overall mess that is Somalia) that confronts us these days (with notable exceptions like North Korea). That's not bad karma, really ; it's more a matter of leaving messes around the world, indifferent to how (or if) they are even cleaned up. Does that mean that anyone deserved to die in this unspeakable horror of a tragedy? NO. Of course not. I doubt Chomsky or Moore or anyone else outside the sick world of the terrorist cells truly believes that. Well, maybe Falwell or Robertson does. Why focus on them? Aside from the fact that they each inexplicably have a large following in this country and corresponding influence on public policy (though I was very pleased to see the White House, in no uncertain terms, distance themselves from their remarks) the media pays attention to them. Their hopefully credibility-ruining remarks are designed to respond to hatred with more hatred, to turn inwards against ourselves. They have created for themselves a God who hates the same people they do, much like the radical Islamicists who somehow come to believe God will reward them for mass murder have. Noam Chomsky is a fringe figure in US culture, and Moore owes his fame more to his humor - he did step over the line with the last paragraph Steve quoted, IMO, though - than as a convention "opinion" writer. What are they are trying to do, generally, is implore us to look at ourselves for a moment, and perhaps see ourselves as others see us. And by "others," I don't mean fanatics so far gone as to want trade their lives for those of a thousand innocent ones. Nor the ones happy that this happened. I refer to those that wept for America and yet wondered privately why Americans don't understand why anti-Americanism is in fashion even among our putative allies these days.
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