Read below- I couldn't agree more and from a fellow liberal Democrat(a group never exactly known for flag-waving) America is indeed the world's best hope in so many ways, including the fight against the evil  we face today.
				
18-SEP-2001 

Americans Blaming America

The traumatic events of September 11 provided something of a 
moral Rorschach Test for Americans.  The vast majority of our 
people -- and indeed, the vast majority of people around the 
world -- immediately and instinctively saw the terrorist attacks 
as an unmitigated act of evil, whatever their views on American 
policies at home or abroad.  

But on the political fringes of our country, there were some who 
just as instinctively reached for explanations in which Americans, 
in the end, were at least partly responsible for our own tragic 
misfortune.  

In the current issue of The Nation, Robert Fisk deplores the 
terrorist attacks, but then all but equates them to a variety of U.S. 
and Israeli actions: "the sanctions that have destroyed the lives 
of perhaps half a million children in Iraq," the "17,500 civilians 
killed in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon," etc., etc.  No, says 
Fisk, you can't blame anyone else for the September 11 attacks, 
but "the malign influence of history and our share in its burden 
must surely stand in the dark with the suicide bombers."  This 
slippery line of reasoning is, of course, being echoed on television 
each night by a variety of "Middle East experts" who begin by 
deploring the terrorists, but who eventually get around to blaming 
America for not forcing Israel to cave into Palestinian demands, 
thus "angering" public opinion in Arab and other Islamic countries.  

On the Right, there was a breathtaking example of "blame 
America" opinion from none other than the Reverends Jerry 
Falwell and Pat Robertson, on the latter's Christian Broadcasting 
Network.  Quoth Falwell: "I really believe that the pagans and the 
abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who 
are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU 
and the People for the American Way -- all of them who have 
tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and 
say, 'You helped this happen.'  God continues to lift the curtain 
and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we 
deserve."  Robertson quickly replied, "Jerry, that's my feeling."  
Perhaps the dozens of conservative politicians and commentators 
who last year vilified Senator John McCain for calling Falwell and 
Robertson "extremists" owe the Arizona Senator an apology.  

These sporadic expressions of "blame America" sentiment have 
been relatively rare.  But they are eerily congruent with the rhetoric 
of terrorists aflame at the alleged arrogance or wickedness of 
America.  Those on the Left who demonize our Middle East 
policies or our support for economic globalization, and those on 
the Right who are convinced that our culture is fatally decadent, 
should prayerfully reflect on this congruence.  Perhaps then they 
can begin to share the moral clarity of most of their fellow-citizens.  
America is hardly perfect, but in this fight against terrorism, it's 
the best hope for good in the face of evil. 

Further Reading:

"Terror in America," by Robert Fisk,
The Nation, October 1, 2001:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011001&s=fisk

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