[steve-b]

This silly notion that the West is to blame for being attacked is dissected, much better than I can, by Eric S. Raymond's Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto, discussed on this thread.

A particularly apropos point is made in the latest revision:

3.THAT the terrorists have declared and are pursuing a war not against the vices of Western civilization but against its core virtues; against the freedom of thought and speech and conscience, against the life of reason; against the equality of women, against pluralism and tolerance; against, indeed, all the qualities which separate civilized human beings from bestiality, slavery, and fanaticism;

[stands2reason]

I didn't say that the U.S. was at fault for the attacks at all. The extremists will hate us no matter what we do short of converting to Islam.

I do, think that the decadence of certain aspects of western culture make it easier for the extremists to recruit moderates away from making some kind of "understanding" with the rest of us. I mean, Marilyn Manson and gangstah rap are used as "proof" of how evil we are, that we should be destroyed. You wouldn't have to go back to the 11th century to find Christians who wouldn't think twice at burning Marilyn Manson at the stake.

Think how easy it is for them--we try to explain the abstract concept of freedom and try to tell them it's worth the detritus you have to put up wit , and the islamofascists only have to turn on a television. Of course I do blame marxism for the decline in Western culture---so it's all the left's fault, anyway.