There
seem to be many people, even in libertarian circles, who think that
America was attacked because of abstract principles like “freedom”
and “prosperity” and even “democracy.” And I didn’t want to
say it, but so far it has been overwhelmingly true: the libertarians who
would otherwise agree with the rest of us on most things but have done
complete 180s here are Jewish. They support Israel blindly and
fanatically, out of some allegiance to, as one writer put it, his
“creed.”
Part of my family is Jewish, but my mother doesn’t imply that Arabs are less than human. I must have lucked out with my set of raving liberal Jewish relatives who don’t particularly like Israelis, because they are generally pushy, obnoxious, and rude, which probably comes from their perch atop the class ladder of the Middle East. It’s not their way or the highway. It’s their way or you get shot. And many American Jews like this attitude because they wish they had it and were not such nebbishy armchair warriors.
The blind fanaticism of these warmongering American Jews, and that of the fundamentalist Christian groups in this country trying to force God’s hand to bring the Rapture and the End Times is bringing the wrath of the horribly mistreated Arab peoples against ordinary American citizens.
It is a very easy concept to understand: the US government bombs innocent civilians all over the world, with hundreds of thousands dead in Arab parts, and so they hate us. They hate us because our government exterminates them like mosquitoes. So, in response to our government killing civilians, they kill OUR civilians. It is not right, but it is the only logical sustaining impetus for this utter hatred of Americans and our country.
To quote Justin Raimondo from his most recent article:
This says nothing about the means the Palestinians are using to advance their cause, but only points to the underlying justice of the cause itself. The US has bombed Iraq on a quasi-daily basis since the alleged "end" of the Gulf War. By libertarian standards, they have the moral right to retaliate – but only with proportionate force, and only against those who initiated the aggression. This does not include the thousands of civilians who worked at the World Trade Center. But, again, nobody said we were dealing with libertarians here.
That, I think, is the main problem here. The monsters who killed all those innocents and destroyed an entire neighborhood were definitely not libertarians. They had no problem with the slaughter because of the principles they are taught, among which the idea that civilians are responsible for the criminal actions of their rulers is prominent.
Guess what? It’s also the dominating principle in Americans’ view of war. A group of fanatics assault our land. Americans call for blood first, and investigation later. Let’s pick the number one bad guy on the list: Osama bin Laden. Where does he supposedly hide out? In Afghanistan! Who runs Afghanistan? The Taliban regime! Who does the Taliban rule? Innocent civilians! There’s our target, boys, to keep the blood-lust of the American people satiated, let’s murder as many toothless old women and stumbling toddlers as we can!
Many people I know, including family members, agree with this logic. “They didn’t care about killing civilians, why should we?”
Because then you are also a terrorist.
But that’s okay! It doesn’t count, because you’re American, and we have different rules. You see, foreigners aren’t really full-fledged humans, so it’s okay if we kill innocents. They’re all the same. Don’t worry, if we carpet-bomb Kabul there will still be Afghanis. I mean, they can still make more, right?
One correspondent with whom I have conversations with pretty frequently let me know that as a refugee from Communist Russia, he knows that non-Westerners around the world would hate us regardless of whether we starved and bombed them or not. Keep in mind that otherwise, this guy is a totally principled libertarian as he finishes:
Now
is the time to kill'em all because killing means survival for the US.
The next time, these jets will have a small nuke in them and
there'll be 50,000 dead instead of 5,000. There's no rejoicing in
this task, it's not a question of being a blood thirsty monster. I'd
rather live and let live, but the mold has been cast and the choice
taken.
It won't end until the last Islamic fundamentalist is left standing.
So, reluctantly I say, do it now and get it over with.
By whatever means necessary.
What the hell is the matter with you people!? Why are you so thirsty for innocent blood!? There has not been any arguments thus far that have convinced me that Muslims or Arabs are innately evil, or innately hate America because it is a prosperous, capitalist country. These are the ravings of people who are either lunatics or are too lazy to apply otherwise-heeded libertarian principles to their knee-jerk emotional reactions.
Death is horrible. We should be working to eliminate it, not perpetuate it.
September 17, 2001
