They Don't Hate Us For Our Freedoms

Slate Magazine has an interesting article about the different books that have been published concerning the writings and grievances of Muslim terrorists. Now this is fairly interesting and we should spend some time identifying our enemy's grievances if for no other reason than discovering weaknesses that can be exploited.

Reza Aslan tries to understand and explain why they hate us.

Americans have been asking this question for nearly six years now, and for six years President Bush and his accomplices have been offering the same tired response: "They hate us for our freedoms." With every passing year, that answer becomes less convincing.

Well, this is a simple leader offering sound bite explanations to a simple people. Overly harsh? I don't think so, after all the media ate it up and look how simple they are.

I'm not going to get into this article too much, but I encourage you to read it. It's interesting, but flawed. The reason is that I'm an American and I don't so much as give a big damn what this group of criminals think about anything. I don't care why they're upset, but I have a question for them. Why are you mad at us? Is it for the easy and abundant media exposure?

What I don't understand is why this group of predominantly Saudi Arabians and Pakistanis aren't fighting in their own countries to bring about change. Could it be that they are just thugs and criminals, murderers and misfits? If they keep this up all they're are going to wind up is dead. Sooner or later the man who has done more for their efforts than anyone, George Bush, will be out of office and the next president may actually have a clue about what to do with these people. George Bush hasn't intentionally done anything to aid these criminals, he's just in over his head, a no-where man, living in his no-where land, etc., etc.

In the end, this is the most important lesson to be learned from these writings. Because, if we are truly locked in an ideological war, as the president keeps reminding us, then our greatest weapons are our words. And thus far, instead of fighting this war on our terms, we have been fighting it on al-Qaida's.

Don't believe me? Ask Bin Laden:

Bush left no room for doubts or media opinion. He stated clearly that this war is a Crusader war. He said this in front of the whole world so as to emphasize this fact. … When Bush says that, they try to cover up for him, then he said he didn't mean it. He said, 'crusade.' Bush divided the world into two: 'either with us or with terrorism' … The odd thing about this is that he has taken the words right out of our mouths.

Odd, indeed.

Oh yes, Mr. Bush has helped them, greatly, but what he has done that is even more damaging is that he has made us more like them. He ignores international treaties like the Geneva Convention. He has authorized and encouraged torture. He has spied on Americans and imprisoned them without habeas corpus. He has authorized the international transport of prisoners so that they could be secretly imprisoned and tortured. The list goes on and on.

To defeat these monsters we must be true to ourselves and live up to our heritage and our beliefs. We should be trying to make the world more like us, or the way we used to be before the non-leadership of the Bush administration made us into something that we are truly not.

We're The United States of America and it's time we started acting like it.

Jim Martin