If you have always thought of me as a terrorist sympathizer or a Taliban fan, though, why have you not told us up front?
I don't think of you as such. Not at all. Tahir assembled evidence of something you said didn't really exist.
Like I said the other day, on the American left (assuming it exists, of course), there's a widespread tendency to invert the claims of our leaders: the U.S. is uniquely good becomes the U.S. is uniquely bad; the U.S. is the beacon of hope for the world becomes the U.S. is an oppressive and destructive force without rival; Americans are the freest people on earth becomes Americans are the most oppressed and conformist; the U.S. is the most tolerant and open society in the world becomes the U.S. is the most racist, etc. This kind of thinking rules out any positive contribution of this often appalling country (and its often admirable people), or any consideration that French and Malaysian capitalists are happy to exploit their own workers and have the Pentagon guard the rule of capital, or any consideration that some social forces could on occasion be worse than U.S. imperialism. I like what Negri had to say about anti-Americanism in that interview I posted earlier.
Doug