"Judgment
Day in Mystery Babylon?"
"Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life. If there was a Soviet Union today, we would not be having this conversation about plunging into a new war in the Middle East, and the US would not be rampaging around the globe." (George Galloway)
News and commentary on anti-Americanism and anti-West sentiments.
Part 1: 2001/09/12 - 2001/09/29
Part 2: 2001/10/01 - 2001/12/28
Part 3: 2002/01/08 - 2002/06/28
Part 4: 2002/07/01 - 2002/08/30
Part 5: 2002/09/03 - 2002/09/30
Part 6: 2002/10/03 - 2002/11/30
Part 7: 2002/12/01 - 2003/01/15
Part 8: 2003/01/17 -September 2002
"Ted Rall and His Web of Half-Truths: A Critique" (John Giuffo, The Comics Journal, from the #247 issue)
"Left Behind" (George Packer, The New York Times Magazine, 2002/09/22)
"Marching off to peace" (Ken Loach, The Observer, 2002/09/22)
"The Fog of Peace" (David Brooks, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/09/30 issue)
"Mixed Nuts" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/09/20)
"Terrorists at our universities" (Ben Shapiro, Town Hall, 2002/09/19)
"Activists prepare anti-war campaign" (Brian Wheeler, BBC News, 2002/09/18)
"The silent majority voices its sympathy for America" (Janet Daley, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/09/18)
"A domestic outlook on 9/11: Seeing through it all" (Al-Ahram Weekly, from the 12 - 18 September 2002 issue)
"Orwellian 'Peace' Movement" (David Harsanyi, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/09/17)
"'O God, deal with the Americans, the English, and the Jews' Iraqi sermon 13 September 2002" (IMRA, 2002/09/17)
"Saddam and me" (Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian, 2002/09/16)
"Blind to Evil" (Ronald Radosh, New York Post, 2002/09/15)
"The Indymedia Kids" (Glenn Reynolds, InstaPundit, 2002/09/14)
"The Roots of European Appeasement" (David Gelernter, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/09/23 issue)
"Stupidity Watch" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/09/12)
"PM links attacks to 'arrogant' West" (Sheldon Alberts, National Post, 2002/09/12)
"Schröder's anti-war stance puts him ahead of the pack" (Roger Boyes, The Times, 2002/09/12)
"The Best and Worst of 9/11/02" (Jonathan V. Last, The Weekly Standard, 2002/09/12)
"Europe Pauses and Grieves, but Takes Issue With U.S." (Frank Bruni, The New York Times, 2002/09/12)
"Hundreds rally at mosque to gloat over US suffering" (Sam Lister and Daniel McGrory, The Times, 2002/09/12)
"She's come undone" (Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com, 2002/09/11)
"I found where I was when the terrorists hit home" (Janet Daley, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/09/11)
"The Left and 9/11" (Adam Shatz, The Nation, from the 2002/09/23 issue)
"Real Battles and Empty Metaphors" (Susan Sontag, The New York Times, 2002/09/10)
"A View from the Patriotic Left of Gore Vidal and other America Haters" (Todd Gitlin, The Globe and Mail/FrontPageMagazine, 2002/09/10)
"Booklet predicting end of US is PA best seller" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/09/10)
"Gore Vidal Says Bush 'Wants War to Go on Forever'" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/09/09)
"A Sense Of Betrayal" (Lisa Chedekel, The Hartford Courant, 2002/09/08)
"Flying the flag" (Mark Steyn, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/09/07)
"Norman Mailer declares: 'America is so vain'" (Matt Drudge, Drudge Report, 2002/09/06)
"It's not the Yanks who are dumb" (Neil Clark, The Spectator, from the 2002/09/07 issue)
"Isn't it Rich?" (Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com, 2002/09/05)
"UC Berkeley: A Safe Harbor For Hate" (Rory Miller, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/09/05)
"School-sponsored 9-11 Remembrance Day to exclude patriotic symbols and religious references" (Steve Sexton, The California Patriot, 2002/09/04)
"Powell Jeered" (Andrew Sullivan, andrewsullivan.com, 2002/09/04)
"Survey: Europeans Say U.S. Partly to Blame for 9/11" (Kate Kelland, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/09/03)
"Ted Rall and His Web of Half-Truths: A Critique" (John Giuffo, The Comics Journal, from the #247 issue)
An in-depth critique of the works of the cartoonist and columnist Ted Rall. Found via Little Green Footballs: "In the ensuing months [after 9/11], his analysis of the war and its combatants has been thoroughly shot through with distortion, exaggeration and lies. ... Oct. 2 marks the first chance he gets to address the war in Afghanistan. His column from that day, knee-slappingly titled "Give Thought a Chance," is an attempt to explain why any military action in Afghanistan would be both a waste of time and "an escalation of genocide by trade sanction." ... Rall argues that oil is the real purpose of the war in his strip from Oct. 4 and his column on Oct. 12, when he connects the dots between a newly revived pipeline plan by energy company Unocal, and the Bush administration's notoriously close ties with Big Oil. Therefore, "... this ersatz war by a phony president is solely about getting the Unocal deal done without interference from annoying local middlemen." ... Seeing America - warts and all - is necessary. Seeing only America's warts is just stupid. But moreover, it means Rall's opinions - and the strips and columns those opinions inform - are fatally flawed. Factor in exaggeration, inaccuracy and outright lies, and what's left is an utterly worthless political cartoonist." (See also: Ted Rall Online.)"Left Behind" (George Packer, The New York Times Magazine, 2002/09/22)
An in-depth profile of the radical lawyer Lynne Stewart, who represented Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and now face charges of aiding a terrorist organization:
"When the towers fell, she felt that her city had been violated and her own life disrupted (her office is below Canal Street). But this warmhearted woman took the slaughter of innocents with a certain coldbloodedness. The U.S. is constantly at war around the world and shouldn't expect its acts to go unanswered, she says. The Pentagon was ''a better target''; the people in the towers ''never knew what hit them. They had no idea that they could ever be a target for somebody's wrath, just by virtue of being American. They took it personally. And actually, it wasn't a personal thing.'' As for civilian deaths in general: ''I'm pretty inured to the notion that in a war or in an armed struggle, people die. They're in the wrong place, they're in a nightclub in Israel, they're at a stock market in London, they're in the Algerian outback - whatever it is, people die.'' She mentions Hiroshima and Dresden. 'So I have a lot of trouble figuring out why that is wrong, especially when people are sort of placed in a position of having no other way.'''"Marching off to peace" (Ken Loach, The Observer, 2002/09/22)
Ken Loach is "ahead of this week's anti-war demonstration". He seems to be unable to draw a distinction between dictatorships and democracies: "An authoritative witness, Scott Ritter, the man who spent seven years as a UN arms inspector in Iraq, says: 'Since 1998, Iraq has been fundamentally disarmed.' Where is the substantial evidence to counter that? If such weapons are the issue, then Israel should be first in the dock, since it possesses far more than any regime in the area. Indeed, if all are equal before the law, should not the UN send inspectors to all countries with these weapons? ... Respect for international law and UN resolutions cannot be the issue either. Israel defies the UN without suffering any sanctions. In 1986, the US was found guilty by the International Court of Justice of illegally mining Nicaragua's harbours and fined $370 million. The US ignored the court and its decision. ... The US forfeited any claim to moral leadership long ago. It has a history of undermining international law, contempt for the human rights of others and promoting its own brand of international terrorism.""The Fog of Peace" (David Brooks, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/09/30 issue)
A must-read article about the parochialism of the anti-war left: "For example, on September 19, a group of peaceniks took out a full-page ad in the New York Times opposing the campaign in Afghanistan and a possible campaign in Iraq. ... In the text of the ad, which runs to 15 paragraphs, Saddam Hussein is not mentioned. Weapons of mass destruction are not mentioned. The risks posed by terrorists and terror organizations are not mentioned. ... Reviewing Noam Chomsky, legal scholar Richard Falk, a member of the editorial board of the Nation, observes that while he agrees with much of what Chomsky writes, he is troubled by the fact that Chomsky is "so preoccupied with the evils of U.S. imperialism that it completely occupies all the political and moral space." That is exactly what you see in the writings of the peace camp generally - not only in Chomsky's work but also in the writings of people who are actually tethered to reality. Their supposed demons - Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Doug Feith, Donald Rumsfeld, and company - occupy their entire field of vision, so that there is no room for analysis of anything beyond, such as what is happening in the world. ... This is the dictionary definition of parochialism - the inability to consider the larger global threats because one is consumed by one's immediate domestic hatreds. This parochialism takes many forms, but all the branches of the opposition to the war in Iraq have one thing in common: Iraq is never the issue. Something else is always the issue." (See also: "Mixed Nuts" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/09/20))"Mixed Nuts" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/09/20)
"A group calling itself "Not in Our Name" bought an ad in yesterday's New York Times proclaiming its opposition to America. ... "We call on all Americans to RESIST the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration," it declares. "It is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate." Among the signers are such luminaries as "Hanoi Jane" Fonda, Ed Asner, Susan Sarandon, Casey Kasem (of "America's Top 40" fame), Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Edward Said, Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry's), Kurt Vonnegut and murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal. The ad adds: "The brutal repercussions have been felt from the Philippines to Palestine, where Israeli tanks and bulldozers have left a terrible trail of death and destruction." Not a word about Palestinian terrorism, or indeed about any kind of terrorism except for the attacks of Sept. 11, which the signatories dismiss by likening them to 'similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama City, and, a generation ago, Vietnam.'" (See also the ad: "Not In Our Name" (Not In Our Name, 2002/09/19), "Blind to Evil" (Ronald Radosh, New York Post, 2002/09/15) and "US artists damn 'war without limit'" (Duncan Campbell, The Guardian, 2002/06/14))"Terrorists at our universities" (Ben Shapiro, Town Hall, 2002/09/19)
"Al-Talib, the UCLA Muslim student newsmagazine, is funded by the tuition money of UCLA students. A few quotes from the magazine should suffice to demonstrate just how patriotic the staff members' American education has made them:
- "Race and racism are deeply rooted in the very foundations of American society and the collective American psyche."
- "With the coming of death into this country, the U.S. has entered Afghanistan so as to once again rob the world of its innocent lives." ...
- The magazine also calls Osama Bin-Ladin a "prominent Muslim activist" and jokes about changing the name of the magazine to 'Al-Taliban.'" (See also Al-Talib's latest editorial for another example of their position: "First, it was the Indigenous Americans. They were forced off their own land in an unimaginable genocide, their way of life altered forever. Then came the turn of the African Americans. Forced into slavery, they became part of an enduring cycle of social oppression, which continues to this day. ... As thousands of Muslims sit behind bars without due process, we come to the painful realization that now, it's the Muslims' turn…" ("Then They Came For Us" (Al-Talib, volume 12, issue 3, Autumn 2002))"Activists prepare anti-war campaign" (Brian Wheeler, BBC News, 2002/09/18)
And they call Bush simpleminded?: "Speaking at a Stop the War Coalition rally in East London, veteran left-wing journalist Paul Foot told activists they genuinely had the power to stop a conflict. He said public opinion was with the anti-war movement and the "utter madmen" in George Bush's administration had already bowed to pressure by going to the United Nations. ... "Those madmen that are in charge can be stopped," he added. ... He dismissed talk of Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction as "piffle". "If you close your eyes when they are talking about Iraq and replace it with Israel then everything they say applies. The weapons of mass destruction are there in the Middle East, they are in the hands of the Israeli government, the most dangerous hands they could possibly be in." To rapturous applause, Mr Foot told activists: 'Whatever the UN says, we are against war with Iraq.'""The silent majority voices its sympathy for America" (Janet Daley, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/09/18)
In last week's column, Daley wrote about anti-Americanism in British media. As a result she has received a "tidal wave of kindness and sympathy...from readers who wanted to assure me that the reaction of some parts of the British media to the World Trade Centre attack, about which I had written so bitterly, did not in any way represent the feelings of the real people of this country": "Over and again, the letters assured me that "the BBC has nothing to do with us": I should not mistake the national broadcasting service for the nation. The letters came from all over the country and many of them were scathing of the metropolitan circles that I inhabited. Britain was full of decent people who were not fooled. The obnoxious chatterers to whom I was referring were "a tiny minority" - which is statistically true enough. So why, you ask, don't I just ignore them? Because I can't, dear reader. And neither can you. Whether you like it or not, they claim to speak for you. Unlike the diffident people who took the time to write to me, they speak with a loud voice and they invariably see to it that they are heard by those they wish to influence." (See also: "I found where I was when the terrorists hit home" (Janet Daley, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/09/11))
"A domestic outlook on 9/11: Seeing through it all" (Al-Ahram Weekly, from the 12 - 18 September 2002 issue)
Results from a poll made by the Egyptian magazine. Note the conspiracy theorizing inherent in the heading:
"QUESTION 1: How would you describe your feelings when you saw the destruction of New York's twin towers?
They deserved it: 52%
Sympathy for the victims: 35%
Afraid of the future: 24%
Admiration for the culprits: 28%
Anger at the culprits: 10%
QUESTION 2: Who do you think is responsible for the attacks?
Israeli intelligence/Mossad: 39%
We'll never know: 25%
Al-Qa'eda or other Islamic militants: 19%
Others: 19%
QUESTION 3: How do you view the American war on terror?
A means of asserting the US's global dominance: 68%
A war against Arabs and Muslims: 51%
A justified response to the attacks: 15%""Orwellian 'Peace' Movement" (David Harsanyi, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/09/17)
Harsanyi on the Student Peace Action Network: "In other words, SPAN tutors students on the despotism of United States policy, and that policy's responsibility for all the troubles of the world - poverty, famine, war, and especially the threat of nuclear war. They advocate practical alternatives like appeasement and surrender. Carrie Benzschawel, a program associate at Peace Action, for instance, writes that Iraq, North Korea, and even al-Qaeda, shouldn't be our major focus since "the biggest nuclear threat we now face doesn't come from some rogue nation, but from the radical unilateralists within the Bush administration." ... The group has a tentative pro-Iraqi demonstration scheduled for the last weekend in September, where they plan to make stops at the embassies of Egypt, Japan, and Iraq to actually thank them for the opposition to war. Never mind that between them, Egypt and Iraq, have started seven major wars since World War II...""'O God, deal with the Americans, the English, and the Jews' Iraqi sermon 13 September 2002" (IMRA, 2002/09/17)
"Baghdad Republic of Iraq Television in Arabic, official television station of the Iraqi Government, carries on 13 September 2002 at 0916 GMT a live sermon from Imam Abu-Hanifah mosque in Baghdad. ... The imam calls on the faithful "everywhere in the world" to understand "the seriousness of the savage onslaught on Islam and Muslims" and unite against the US and British aggression. ... He also prays: "O God, support your mujahidin subjects everywhere, support them in Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan. O God, make them steadfast, guide their shots, and make them triumph over Your enemy and their enemy. O God, deal with the Americans, the English, and the Jews, for they are within Your power. O God, show us a black day for them. O God, shake the land under their feet, lower their flags, sink their ships, and shoot down their planes. O God, terrorize them in their homes. O God, intimidate them, as they intimidate the peaceful.""Saddam and me" (Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian, 2002/09/16)
An interview with George Galloway, a Labour MP and chairman of the Great Britain Iraq Society: "In recent years, the Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin has become Britain's champion of the Arab world. Some regard him as a thorn in the government's side, others dismiss him as a laughing stock, discredited as an anti-war voice by his readiness to cosy up to Saddam. ... "I am on the anti-imperialist left." The Stalinist left? 'I wouldn't define it that way because of the pejoratives loaded around it; that would be making a rod for your own back. If you are asking did I support the Soviet Union, yes I did. Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life. If there was a Soviet Union today, we would not be having this conversation about plunging into a new war in the Middle East, and the US would not be rampaging around the globe.'" (See also: "We will not be silenced" (George Galloway, The Guardian, 2001/10/20))"Blind to Evil" (Ronald Radosh, New York Post, 2002/09/15)
"Thus, coming to the ad pages of The New York Times will be what [the radical academics and Hollywood celebrities] call "A Statement of Conscience," calling on the "people of the U.S. to resist" American policy, which they claim shows "grave dangers to the people of the world," who want us to join them in resisting "the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration." ... The petition-signers seem unaware of the dangers posed by radical Islam, al Qaeda, Saddam Hussein and other powers which form what our president has rightfully called "an axis of evil." Indeed, they mock the view that a simple contest exists between "good v. evil," when the real issue is the effort to wage "war abroad and repression at home." Included in their list of such horrible acts of aggression are what they call the "attack" on Afghanistan, the "trail of death and destruction" caused by - Israel - and the blank check the U.S. government wants to kill and bomb whomever it wants. Their description of America today: a country under the thumb of "repression over society," with free speech "suppressed," groups falsely called "terrorist," a nation they hint sits on the edge of totalitarianism." (See also: "US artists damn 'war without limit'" (Duncan Campbell, The Guardian, 2002/06/14))
"The Indymedia Kids" (Glenn Reynolds, InstaPundit, 2002/09/14)
"The Indymedia Kids are obviously provocateurs working for Ashcroft. Who else would respond to a reference on the Wall Street Journal's website bringing in a lot of new eyeballs by posting this?: "As far as defacing patriotic bumper stickers go, I'm all for it. Patriotism is a disease of the ignorant, kind of like believing in UFOs and palm reading. The American flag is also comparable to the Nazi flag and many people around the planet would agree with this comparison. All empires fall. Let's take down the American one." Oh, right: idiots. So which is it?" (See also:"Bump of Truth Action - Comments" (sf.indymedia.org, 2002/09/13) and "Stupidity Watch" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/09/12))
"The Roots of European Appeasement" (David Gelernter, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/09/23 issue)
An excellent essay: "Once upon a time we thought of appeasement as a particular approach to Hitler. We have long since come to see that it is a Weltanschauung, an entire philosophical worldview that teaches the blood-guilt of Western man, the moral bankruptcy of the West, and the outrageousness of Western civilization's attempting to impose its values on anyone else. World War II and its aftermath clouded the issue, but self-hatred has long since reestablished itself as a dominant force in Europe and (less often and not yet decisively) the United States. ... So modern Europe's visceral loathing of war is a consequence of World War I. Self-determination, anti-colonialism, and the rights of small nations are Wilsonian ideals that took hold in the 1920s. The idea of Western civilization's blood-guilt established itself in the aftermath of the peace of Versailles, bore fruit in 1930s appeasement, and still flourishes today.""Stupidity Watch" (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal/Best of the Web Today, 2002/09/12)
"A page on the far-left Web site Indymedia.org urges readers to deface other people's cars with bumper stickers that blare I CAUSED 9/11 and have the following non sequitur of an "explanation" in small print: "The driver of this vehicle knowingly participates in and condones crimes against the human race and the living world for the sole profit of the "power trinity" of big oil, the automobile industry, and the military-prison-industrial complex, and has reneged on the individual responsibility to uphold the United States Constitution and to hold government and industry accountable." In the comments section below, a reader named Brian says someone vandalized his car with one of these stickers. "I had a relative that was a victim of 9/11 and found this bumper sticker to be in very BAD TASTE!!!!" Brian writes, which prompts this response from an anonymous reader: "And if you are Jewish Bryan [sic], as we are all certain you must be, the sticker was particularly apt. As an American Jew YOU actually did cause the alleged 9/11 death of your relative by your blind support for Israel." Charming folks, aren't they?" (See also: "Bump of Truth Action - Comments" (sf.indymedia.org, 2002/09/11))
"PM links attacks to 'arrogant' West" (Sheldon Alberts, National Post, 2002/09/12)
How much "nicer" than the pre-9/11 American response to continuing Islamist terror attacks can you get?: "Jean Chrétien has linked the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to perceived Western greed and arrogance and said the United States should not use its position as the world's only superpower to humiliate people in poorer nations. In an interview that aired last night on CBC-TV, the Prime Minister for the first time suggested the strikes against New York and Washington stemmed from a growing international anger at the way the United States flexes its muscle around the globe. "You cannot exercise your powers to the point of humiliation for the others. That is what the Western world - not only the Americans, the Western world - has to realize. Because they are human beings too. There are long-term consequences," Mr. Chrétien said in the pre-taped interview. "And I do think that the Western world is getting too rich in relation to the poor world and necessarily will be looked upon as being arrogant and self-satisfied, greedy and with no limits. The 11th of September is an occasion for me to realize it even more." ... The Prime Minister suggested Western nations - and the United States in particular - have alienated the rest of the world by trying to impose their values around the globe. Americans, he said, need to be nicer in how they operate on the international stage." (See also: "Chrétien denies suggesting U.S. arrogance fuelled attacks" (Allison Dunfield, The Globe and Mail, 2002/09/12): "The Prime Minister's Office is denying reports that he suggested during a CBC interview two months ago that the Sept. 11 attacks were fuelled in part by U.S. arrogance. ... Opposition Leader Stephen Harper did not agree with the interpretation. "Mr. Chrétien's comments, particularly coming on the anniversary of 9/11, blaming the victim, are shameful. What was behind the events of Sept. 11 are the forces of evil and hatred. These must be resisted by free and democratic societies and their leaders," he said in a statement.")
"Schröder's anti-war stance puts him ahead of the pack" (Roger Boyes, The Times, 2002/09/12)
"For the first time since the 1980s, the Social Democrats are playing the anti-American card and, astonishingly given the outpouring of sympathy after September 11, most Germans are following the Chancellor's lead. "What kind of friendship is it that does not permit disagreement over the existential question of war and peace?" Herr Schröder asked the crowd. "It cannot be that a friend demands something and we immediately have to do as we are told: that's subordination and that's not my thing, not my thing at all." This statement earned big applause. It has been a similar story across the country: the Germans seem ready to vote for a politician who stands up to President Bush. ... He has emphasised that he is against a war with Iraq - "Never under my leadership" - even if there is a United Nations mandate. Herr Schröder also seems to rule out a financial contribution to such a campaign. Plainly, a common European line on Iraq has become impossible and if the Chancellor wins the election, US-German relations will be strained.""The Best and Worst of 9/11/02" (Jonathan V. Last, The Weekly Standard, 2002/09/12)
"In the Seattle Times, Jafar Siddiqui rang the PC bell, lamenting that after September 11, "the president's lieutenants began their war. Their targets were Islam, Muslims and Arabs..." Which is a nifty coincidence, since all of the hijackers were Muslims. But never mind; as Siddiqui somberly informs us, "The climate of fear had set in." "As our administration comes after Arabs and Muslims, they do so with the participation by silence of the people of this free country and by the silence of Congress," he writes. "One thinks of other places where such events have taken place, that we call dictatorships." His conclusion boggles the mind and strains any assumption of good faith: "It appears that the tragedy of Sept. 11 is being compounded by a silent but greater tragedy, a constitutional tragedy under which the rights and freedoms of every person in these United States may be imperiled for generations to come." [emphasis added] ... Over in Britain, where the anti-Americanism is born not of stupidity, but belligerence, John Pilger wrote in the Mirror that "the lesson of September 11 ought to be understanding the rampant nature of the dominant power of the world..." and that "the far greater threat comes not from the Islamic world, but from the West." "The difficult truth," Pilger declares, 'is that Osama bin Laden and Bush/Blair are two sides of the same coin. That is the lesson of September 11.'" (See also: "Muslim Americans still bear brunt of backlash" (Jafar Siddiqui, The Seattle Times, 2002/09/10). Pilger's piece seems not to be available online.)
"Europe Pauses and Grieves, but Takes Issue With U.S." (Frank Bruni, The New York Times, 2002/09/12)
"Last year, a day after Sept. 11, a front-page editorial in the French newspaper Le Monde stated and restated the phrase, "We are all American." But on Tuesday, the same writer, Jean-Marie Colombani, in the same paper observed that "the solidarity reflex from one year ago has been drowned in a wave that leads one to believe that, in the world, we have all become anti-American." ... "Anti-Americanism is back," said Lyudmila M. Alexeyeva, a noted human rights advocate in Moscow. "America is the strongest, richest and most successful country, and people here don't like that." But Ms. Alexeyeva also seemed to speak for many Russians when she added that "Americans endured this suffering with honor." While a majority of Russians said in a recent poll that Americans deserved what happened to them, an even larger majority said they had a "good" or "very good" opinion of the United States.""Hundreds rally at mosque to gloat over US suffering" (Sam Lister and Daniel McGrory, The Times, 2002/09/12)
"Hundreds of Muslim militants gathered in London to gloat over America's suffering last night, scorning moderate Islamic groups in Britain, who joined MPs and community leaders in condemning last night's rally at a mosque in Finsbury Park, North London. ... Sheikh Omar was accused by moderate Muslims of deliberately courting controversy to promote his organisation. Detectives who have carefully monitored the Syrian-born sheikh's speeches say that while he is provocative, he is careful not to break the law. The sheikh described the past year as "a war against Islam" and gave warning of more attacks against Britain and America. "If Britain and the US bomb Iraq, they will be bombed right back," he said." (See also: "Hard liners call Bin Laden 'hero'" (BBC News, 2002/09/12): "Abu Hamza warned Britain and the US: "If you were on the agenda you would see suicide bombings everywhere, just like in Israel. "So it's simple. Stay away and preserve your people." ... Dr Muhammad Al-Mass'ari, secretary general of the Commission for the Defence of Legitimate Rights, echoed his comments and said the 11 September attacks were maybe not "the wisest thing" but were "legitimate". ... 'An eye for an eye as an old book said. But it was only one eye for 100 eyes, there is still much more to do.'")
"She's come undone" (Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com, 2002/09/11)
Sullivan decodes Susan Sontag's Op-Ed in yesterday's New York Times: "Of course, it is Sontag who is drowning here. She knows she cannot countenance the evil of radical Islamism. She knows she cannot defend Saddam or Osama. She knows she cannot truly oppose self-defense against the horrors of the terror masters. For how can she be a real lefty and support people who enslave women, deny human rights and murder homosexuals and Jews? But her worldview is so marinated in decades of anti-Americanism, in a loathing of capitalism, of free markets, of free trade and ideas, that she cannot bring herself to live up to her own principles. So she waits in a welter of metaphor until they murder us again." (See also: "Real Battles and Empty Metaphors" (Susan Sontag, The New York Times, 2002/09/10))
"I found where I was when the terrorists hit home" (Janet Daley, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/09/11)
"But none of that - none of it - prepared me for the avalanche of anti-American vituperation that poured from the mouths (and keyboards) of the educated, opinion-forming classes of Britain when the twin towers of the World Trade Centre fell. In the first days, while many Americans here were still trying desperately to contact friends and family in New York to ascertain whether they and their loved ones were still alive (telephones were down, e-mail proved to be the only functioning communications system), we were treated to the Guardian comment pages filled with puerile vindictive abuse, largely to the effect that America had got everything that it deserved ("A bully with a bloody nose is still a bully"). ... Who could possibly find it anything other than morally grotesque to bait and taunt people who have just suffered the worst terrorist attack in history - the mass murder of what at the outset was thought might be about 10,000 innocent civilians? Well, quite a few people as it turned out.""The Left and 9/11" (Adam Shatz, The Nation, from the 2002/09/23 issue)
An analysis of the Left's response to 9/11: "The prowar left and the antiwar left have both tended to view the conflict through ideologically tinted prisms. Reflexive anti-Americanism is one such prism. As Don Guttenplan, a London-based correspondent for The Nation, observes, for a small but vocal section of American radicals, "there is only one imperialism, and if it isn't American it's not imperialism." In the past decade this theology of American evil has assumed increasingly twisted forms, including, in some cases, a creeping sympathy for Serbian nationalism. It has also produced a highly selective solicitude for the oppressed: "Muslim grievances" are to be heeded when they emanate from Palestine, but ignored or even repudiated when they arise in Bosnia or Kosovo. This has damaged the left's moral standing and widened the chasm with human rights activists, who should be our natural allies.""Real Battles and Empty Metaphors" (Susan Sontag, The New York Times, 2002/09/10)
To call democracy good and Islamist terrorism evil is "jihad language", according to Sontag: "Real wars are not metaphors. And real wars have a beginning and an end. Even the horrendous, intractable conflict between Israel and Palestine will end one day. But this antiterror war can never end. That is one sign that it is not a war but, rather, a mandate for expanding the use of American power. ... When the government declares war on terrorism - terrorism being a multinational, largely clandestine network of enemies - it means that the government is giving itself permission to do what it wants. ... Those who objected to the jihad language used by the American government (good versus evil, civilization versus barbarism) were accused of condoning the attacks, or at least the legitimacy of the grievances behind the attacks." (See also: "First Reactions" (Susan Sontag, The New Yorker, 2001/09/17))
"A View from the Patriotic Left of Gore Vidal and other America Haters" (Todd Gitlin, The Globe and Mail/FrontPageMagazine, 2002/09/10)
"Anti-Americanism is an emotion substituting for an analysis, a morality, an ideal, even an idea about what to do. When the hatred of foreign policies sputters into a hatred of an entire people and their civilization, then thinking is dead and demonology lives. When complexity of thought devolves into caricature - and all broad-brush hatred of any nation, whatever its occasions, is caricature - intellect is on its way to reconciling itself to mass murder. ... Toward the likes of Timothy McVeigh and Osama bin Laden, who would define their mass murders as retaliations against the United States of America and its incidental citizens, Vidal burns with sympathy. Not for him so banal an act as moral condemnation, or investigation of what sort of person it is who commits mass murder out of political grievance. Rather, he thinks it is tough-minded to indulge his preoccupation with "the various preoccupations on our side that drove them to such terrible acts." Note: "drove them." These killers were presumably helpless heaps of machinery. All you need to know about them is 'the unremitting violence of the United States against the rest of the world.'" (See also: "Gore Vidal Says Bush 'Wants War to Go on Forever'" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/09/09))
"Booklet predicting end of US is PA best seller" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/09/10)
"A booklet that anticipates the destruction of the US by 2004 has become a best seller in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip. The author of the 32-page publication is Salah Eddin Abu Arafeh, a young Muslim preacher from Jerusalem. ... The booklet, which sells for only NIS 2, is entitled The Koran Anticipates the Destruction of the US and the Sinking of the American Army. Bin Laden is compared to Moses. "Moses represents the right in the confrontation with the evil," the author states. "And in my view, it is Sheikh Osama bin Laden who is facing injustice today." Abu Arafeh explains that he found many "striking similarities between the US administration and the corrupt Pharaoh who oppressed the believers and enslaved them.""Gore Vidal Says Bush 'Wants War to Go on Forever'" (Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/09/09)
Who's demonizing who?: "U.S. author Gore Vidal denounced President Bush Tuesday as wanting the war on terror to go on forever and said some Americans were delighted that the September 11 attacks had singled out Muslims as the enemy. ... "Some people in the United States were rather delighted that it (the attacks) mobilized the entire country and focused on a single enemy, which we'd been demonizing for quite some time - the Muslim world," Vidal said. 'He (Bush) wants this to go on forever. He said to Congress after 9/11: 'It's going to be a long war'. He was thrilled.'" (See also: "Beneath the Planet of the Anti-War Libertarians" (BrinkLindsey.com, 2002/04/30))
"A Sense Of Betrayal" (Lisa Chedekel, The Hartford Courant, 2002/09/08)
A report from Saudi Arabia: "A year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Saudi Arabia is like the Red Sea, defying Western logic. Where we look for remorse, our longtime ally offers indignation. Where we expect introspection, there is a growing defensiveness. Where we thought we sensed a wind of change, there is a hardening around the old ways. Riyadh, the country's conservative capital, already is closing ranks against the West. Now cosmopolitan, reform-minded Jeddah - Osama bin Laden's hometown - also is slipping away. ... Americans see a country that took their petrodollars and poured them into radical Islamic schools and terrorist networks. The Saudis see a nation that has used them for its own gain, while scheming against the Muslim world - Palestinians, Aghans and now, Iraqis. ... And what of U.S. plans to pay tribute to the victims of Sept. 11? Even that points up a cultural difference. The Saudis bury their dead within hours, in unmarked graves, and discourage demonstrative mourning. "I feel for the families, of course," said Samar Fatani, a Jeddah mother of five who works for state-run Saudi radio. 'But people die every day, in earthquakes, in floods, in natural disasters. Did America think it was immune to all the dangers of the world?'""Flying the flag" (Mark Steyn, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/09/07)
"The stampede started almost immediately. On September 12, the Ottawa Citizen ran a column by Susan Riley headlined "At Times Like This, We Thank God That We're Canadians". Oh, God, I groaned, not the usual moral preening. But no, Ms Riley skipped that and went straight for naked self-interest: "Our best protection may be distancing ourselves a little more explicitly from US foreign policy … pursuing a reasonable and moderate course in the world's trouble spots." I've heard it a thousand times since and I still don't get it. By "distancing yourself" from the victims of September 11 you move yourself closer to the perpetrators, closer to barbarism. It may be "reasonable and moderate", but it's also profoundly self-corroding. This isn't a "clash of civilisations" so much as a clash within civilisations - in the West, between those who believe in the values of liberal democracy and those too numbed by multiculturalist bromides to recognise even the most direct assault on them; and in the Islamic world, between what's left of the moderate Muslim temperament and the Saudi-radicalised death-cult Islamists. I don't want to be "moderate and reasonable" in the face of Mohammed Atta. A world that "distances" itself from the US to get closer to him is a world that's more misogynist, bigoted, corrupt and superstitious.""Norman Mailer declares: 'America is so vain'" (Matt Drudge, Drudge Report, 2002/09/06)
Mailer apparently thinks that the 3000 deaths in the September 11 attacks were "a tolerable level" of terror: "In an 8,000-wordish polemic to be published in this weekend's London Sunday Times [9/8/02], Norman Mailer sounds what he hopes to be a "wake up call for America," the Drudge Report has learned. ... 'Let's suppose ten people are killed by a small bomb on a street corner in some city in America. The first thing to understand is that there are 280 million Americans. So, there's one chance in 28 million you're going to be one of those people. By such heartless means of calculation, the 3000 deaths in the Twin Towers came approximately to one mortality for every 90,000 Americans. Your chances of dying if you drive a car are one in 7,000 each year. We seem perfectly ready to put up with automobile statistics. I fear I am ready to say there is a tolerable level to terror...'""It's not the Yanks who are dumb" (Neil Clark, The Spectator, from the 2002/09/07 issue)
"'To people of my type, across Europe and the English-speaking world, Americans are a laughing-stock, known mainly for their vacuous culture and profound ignorance. We all have a "dumb Yank" story on our travels. This is why Americans are so hated by us on the Left, however much we condemn the outrages.' Such were the thoughts of Thomas Smith of Bristol, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph not long after the events of 11 September. ... Although Smith's assertions, thankfully, did not go unchallenged by American readers of the Telegraph, one can only wonder what greater commotion would have been caused had our young Bristolian used the term 'dumb' to describe, for example, Nigerians or Pakistanis instead of Americans. ... The 'Left' of Thomas Smith, though, while preaching equality and brotherly love between all races, conveniently does allow for exceptions. All men are equal; all men, that is, except Americans, Serbs, white Africans and Protestants from Northern Ireland. Those unfortunate enough to be members of these groups can be freely called all the names under the sun without fear of opprobrium. ... In Zimbabwe, Mugabe can yell 'Africa is for the Africans' without a single letter of protest in the Guardian. Were a 'right-wing' European politician to make similar comments about Europe, indignant readers would be sending in their emails within seconds.""Isn't it Rich?" (Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com, 2002/09/05)
Sullivan debunks a column by Frank Rich: "Some petty things can be insinuated without proof, but major charges need a little more, shall we say, evidence? Among the latest Rich assertions is a particularly arresting one. It is that the Bush administration has dreamed up a war on Iraq to solve its domestic political problems. Last month, Rich argued that "what the administration is mainly hoping is that a march on Baghdad will make us forget about Al-Qaeda, wherever it may be lying in wait. It's not good P.R. for our war on terrorism that Islamic terrorists have been linked to eight attacks abroad since Daniel Pearl's murder in January, including the assassination of the Afghan vice president in Kabul and the slaughter of an American diplomat, among others, at a church in Islamabad." Think about that for a minute. A major columnist at the New York Times is accusing the president of risking thousands of young lives in a war on Saddam and risking thousands of others by being delinquent in the battle against al-Qaida - all merely in order to buttress his domestic P.R. The evidence for Bush's treasonous cynicism? Rich has none." (See also: "The Waco Road to Baghdad" (Frank Rich, The New York Times, 2002/08/17))
"UC Berkeley: A Safe Harbor For Hate" (Rory Miller, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/09/05)
"The activist career of Snehal Shingavi illustrates their agendas. ... Even in the face of the terrorist attacks on September 11, Snehal's anti-American passions could not be contained. That evening, Snehal and other campus radicals hosted a candlelight vigil on Sproul Plaza, the traditional heart of U.C. Berkeley student life, which was advertised as a "memorial vigil." The bait and switch was that this was really an anti-America manifestation whose speakers proclaimed that the United States was the world's greatest terrorist regime, and expressed the wish that George Bush had been in the World Trade Center at the time of the attack. The 9/11 terrorist bombings were hailed as the "first blow against American capitalism." I was there to hear it. During the open microphone period, I called for a military response against the terrorists and was booed off the stage. Another student spoke of his friend who was presumed dead in the Towers and was laughed at and mocked when he described his friend as a stockbroker." (Note: Shingavi is also behind the infamous course "The Politics and Poetics of Palestinian Resistance". See also: "Pro-Palestinian Class Proposal Under Review" (Millie Lapadirio and Wendy Lee, The Daily Californian, 2002/05/10))"School-sponsored 9-11 Remembrance Day to exclude patriotic symbols and religious references" (Steve Sexton, The California Patriot, 2002/09/04)
Found via Little Green Footballs: "The "Star Spangled Banner" is too patriotic, divisive and political, so organizers of UC Berkeley's day-long tribute to the victims and heroes of 9-11 are excluding it. "God Bless America" is doubly excluded. Not only is it patriotic, but it also mentions God, something else that is taboo next Wednesday. ... [Jessica Quindel, president of the Graduate Assembly, a key player in the planning], a self avowed hater of the American Flag, the federal government, and the "Star Spangled Banner," said she is still patriotic. "It depends on your definition of patriotism. Everyone has a different definition," she said. Patriotic songs may exclude and offend people, Quindel said, "because there are so many people who don't agree with the songs." "God Bless America" is "very exclusive" because it mentions God, she said. ... Also, to prevent the exclusion of those who don't believe in the American Flag, there will be no tribute to the flag. "The flag has become a symbol of U.S. aggression towards other countries. It seems hostile," Quindel said.""Powell Jeered" (Andrew Sullivan, andrewsullivan.com, 2002/09/04)
"What does it say about the anti-globalization left that it began its heckling of Colin Powell today when he criticized the insane, dictatorial, racist and famine-producing policies of Robert Mugabe? Yes, Mugabe in their eyes is morally superior to the secretary of state of the United States. And we expect them to worry about Saddam?" (See also: "Powell Booed and Jeered at Global Environment Meeting" (Rachel L. Swarns and Terence Neilan, The New York Times, 2002/09/04): "Delegates from American and Australian environmental groups repeatedly interrupted him, shouting "Shame on Bush!" Some held up banners reading, "Betrayed by governments" and "Bush: People and Planet, Not Big Business." ... The heckling started when Secretary Powell criticized Zimbabwe for pursuing land reform policies that have pushed "millions of people to the brink of starvation.")
"Survey: Europeans Say U.S. Partly to Blame for 9/11" (Kate Kelland, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/09/03)
"Most Europeans believe America itself is partly to blame for the devastating attacks on New York and Washington last September 11. According to a new poll, which questioned more than 9,000 Europeans and Americans about how they look at the world one year after the attacks, 55 percent of Europeans think U.S. foreign policy contributed to the tragic events. ... The findings showed that on Iraq, where the Bush administration has made repeated calls for "regime change" and is arguing its case for a military strike against President Saddam Hussein, both Europeans and Americans support a U.S.-led invasion - but only with international approval and support."
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