Rhetoric for the Left

hncl at panix.com hncl at panix.com
Thu Sep 20 13:55:56 PDT 2001


David Hearne wrote:
>
> <some snippage>
> ...Unless I'm mistaken, I
> understand the argument as being that we have to understand the
> hijackers as being products of a culture which has suffered the
> corrupting influence of the U.S. government.
>

It's not a *culture* that has been *corrupted* by the U.S., but real societies, flesh and blood individuals in the hundreds of thousands/millions that have for years now been going hungry, getting dead, seeing the destruction of their families, towns, etc., directly and indirectly because of the US. Big difference, no?


> We should not argue that if the US government had been more
> critical of Israel, then the Trade Center would still be standing. We
> should argue that such acts of madness become the dominant driving
> force behind history as long as we do not admit to our own errors.
>

We shouldn't argue the first because it's a counterfactual. But I think the latter gains maximum force only if we acknowledge and inform people of the full extent of those errors. -- Curtiss, who has no objection to your using "we"



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