A reader writes, "Ratting out
A reader writes,
"Ratting out an employee....to her superior....w/ the intent of getting her fired or ruining a day or two of her life....doesn't sound like something you would do....why go over her head.....why not tell her directly? You're intentions are not to better her...or engage her...You want to hurt her....I find that sneaky and appalling....not cool man....to fall into the mentality of tow the line....ideologically....or I'll fuck w/ your life....isn't' American...
She's right: it was a brilliant maneuver....not since the Trojan horse have we seen something like 911...and she's also right....we've done a lot of evil to a lot of people for a very long time....you don't have to be Chomsky to see that....we've been hanging out all safe and warm....while we supplied the IRA w/ everything they needed to commit their evil acts....while we propped up the shah in Iran....to mention Israel is to omit some cruelty...the Saudis are in power because of us.....on and on...add it all up....and a lot of people got killed because of our direct involvement....or because of our indifference to a persistent evil -the IRA for instance- ....this can certainly be interpreted as begging for someone to get pissed off enough and smash us here or there...or what's closer to the truth....is that we didn't give a shit....we didn't think it could ever bite us in the ass....no matter how wrong some of the shit we did was.....say what you like about 911...but you knew it would happen....and you knew why it would happen....and you knew who was going to do it...to play gotcha w/ someone who's not towing the mainstream line of opinion....'us good....them bad'...is just not something I expect from you."
True: "We've done alot of evil to alot of people for the long time." But that's not why we got hit. American foreign policy has given a lot of different people the shaft over the past 100 years or so. But where are the Guatemalan terrorists, flying planes into our buildings? The Indonesian terrorists? The Vietnamese terrorists? The Korean terrorists? The African terrorists? The Chilean terrorists? The Native American terrorists? Why haven't the Irish hit us, for that matter?
We got hit because the Arab Islamic culture is a failed culture that has produced a medieval scourge. We got hit because they've developed a significant religious minority with a worldview that allows them to claim the murder of innocent non-Muslims as a definable good. Not regrettable. Not accidental. A deliberate good, something to be done as pleasing to their God, to be sought out, an act to be intended and planned. And that's the difference between "us and them," and between them and all the other peoples America has messed with over the years. It's a moral difference. It's a difference in how we define what is good, and right. We may not always do the right thing, but we don't celebrate our evil, and we have enough moral sense to hide it if we can, and be ashamed of it if we can't, because we know that people won't stand for it. "They" don't hide it, they're not ashamed of it, and many of their people celebrate it. Harriet echoed that celebration, only she called it "dispassion."
As far as the uniqueness of the September 11 massacre being grounds for assessing it: we'd never seen anything like the fire-bombing of Dresden before, either, but I seriously doubt that Harriet would describe that as "brilliant." We'd never seen a nuclear device used in combat before, but I doubt that she'd voice similar appreciation for Hiroshima.
As I pointed out in my later comments yesterday: voicing such an opinion in casual conversation to a customer in a retail establishment less than 70 miles from New York City is entirely inappropriate. I wasn't having a political discussion with her. I didn't want to know her opinion. I didn't ask for it. She wanted me to know. She offered her assessment unbidden, with no real context, as a "by the way." But this was "By the way, you have to be dispassionate about the brilliance of an act that killed 3,000 men, women and children."
Bullshit. I don't have to be dispassionate about it, and she's an idiot and an ass for telling me so.
All of that talk about how "America's done bad in the world" really means "We deserved it." Did all of these people deserve it? Did I deserve what happened to me, insignificant as it was in comparison?
No, and no. And I'm absolutely sick of people telling me otherwise in the guise of "just voicing an opinion." I won't stand for it.
As for whether what I did was "American" or not: I don't think that taking "dispassionate" satisfaction in the slaughter of our citizens is American, either. So string me up.
