Lee Harris: Did We Have It Coming?

Tech Central Station ^ | March 23, 2004 | Lee Harris

[quidnunc]

"This is the culture in which we live… The world is ruled by force. The only way we can put a permanent end to terrorism is to stop participating in it… This is the first time the guns have been pointed the other way." – Noam Chomsky, discussing the events of 9/11/01.

Noam Chomsky has endorsed, however reluctantly, John Kerry.

This is an endorsement from the man who, on hearing about 9/11, attempted to put it in perspective for the American people by arguing that President Clinton had murdered many times more people in his response to the Al Qaeda bombing in Kenya than Al Qaeda had murdered on 9/11. The fact that Mr. Chomsky had not a shred of evidence for this blood libel did not kept him from making it. After all, he had something far better than evidence — he had his own opinion; or what Jeremy Bentham called ipsedixitism: something is true because I myself have said it is true.

Yet Noam Chomsky was by no means alone in standing up in the days immediately following 9/11 and declaring that 9/11 was the expected and natural reaction of those who had been oppressed by American hegemony, and who, however immaturely, were fighting back in retaliation for what we had done to them.

True, there were different theories of what exactly we had done to them, and at times, as I watched America's leading public intellectuals apologize for the terrorists, I felt as if I were watching a contest in which these various intellectuals had been invited to write a theme on the question: "Why I would have flown planes into the WTC if I were a terrorist," and in each case, the major intellectual had a ready answer — an answer that, oddly enough, was invariably couched in terms of their own pet theories concerning the evil of the very empire from whom they derived their power, prestige, and status. But in every case, the basic fundamental theme was unchanged: it was all really, in the last analysis, our fault.

In short, we had it coming.

-snip-

[quidnunc]

FYI

[Tolik]

Those apologists for terror who ascribed to the "complex and nuanced" view that we had it coming are not merely apologizing for the wanton slaughter of two thousand men and women on 9/11, they are advancing a justification for killing a whole lot more of them right now.

To say that we deserved 9/11 is to say that they were right to do it to us. And, since from 9/11 to today, as judged by their standards, we have only gotten worse, then they would be even righter to do it again. To tell a man that he is right to shoot his wife, if not positively inciting to murder, is not working very hard to discourage it.

So the first thing that Senator Kerry needs to do before he begins to celebrate the endorsement of the man the New York Times calls our leading public intellectual would be to ask him frankly, "Do you believe that the terrorists would be justified if they were to strike us again?"

Senator Kerry needs to know this in advance, as do the American people. It is a simple question, and it is one that deserves a straightforward answer -- not just from Mr. Chomsky, but from all those who tried to explain away the deaths of two thousands of their fellow human beings. "If we had it coming then, do we have it coming now?" 

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[js1138]

I am reminded of the long and windy essays by bill buckley. A long windup, and when the pitch is delivered, you say, "Huh?"

Kerry has already answered th question. Of course we have made things worse. Of course we deserve to die.

Political movenments are not to be judged by their actions. It does not matter whether socialists kill innocent people and eliminate personal freedom.

The only thing that matters is whether they hate America.

[beckett]

Here's a good piece on Chomsky for those who care to spend a little time indulging in a little self-righteous snickering (one of my favorite pastimes, I know).

The Hypocrisy of Noam Chomsky

[Tolik]

The question and Kerry's answer need to be heard by America. And again. And again.

The fact that the choice in these elections is so obvious to you and me, does not mean that it is as clear to millions of undecided.

So, let's pound the truth in!

[Valin]

So the first thing that Senator Kerry needs to do before he begins to celebrate the endorsement of the man the New York Times calls our leading public intellectual MORAL MIDGET

There that's better.

[JLS]

Oddly the American left both abhors violence but fell in love with violent liberation movements. Were these people merely to say violence is terrrible and the only legit mechanism for violence is the nation state or even the UN, they would be consistent and someone might listen to them.

But one is not believeable abhoring violence if violence on the part of any non nation state group is a liberation movement and ok with them. Abhoring violence does not go hand in hand with falling in love with every "liberation movement" that comes down the pike.