I believe this is the best bit of writing I've seen on last weeks events:
"Let's get something straight.
The events of Sept. 11 did not happen because we did something wrong. Or because we somehow ``deserved'' them.
In recent days, I've heard that argument or variations thereof from several friends and dozens of e-mail correspondents. This must be what ``they'' feel like when we bomb ``them,'' says one. Perhaps they acted out of deep hurt, says another. Maybe this is necessary payback for American arrogance, says yet another. And then, of course, there's the ever-reliable Jerry Falwell, who said on The 700 Club last week that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon represent God's verdict on gay rights, feminism, abortion and the ACLU.
In a word, no. To all of the above, to all the tortured reflection and moral distress: no. Hell no.
I'm not naive. I understand that my government has sometimes dirtied its hands in foreign affairs. For that matter, it has done the same in domestic affairs. So I recognize and accept that some people might have legitimate reason for animosity toward this country.
But guess what? For all our faults, we don't drive planeloads of noncombatants into buildings filled with same. We don't willfully rain carnage upon civilians. And we don't dance in the street when innocents die.
MILITARY TARGETS
When forced to take up arms, we attempt to limit our military actions to military targets. Yes, innocents sometimes die regardless of our best intentions. But for all our transgressions, we don't sanction the murder of those who have neither the capacity nor the intention to harm us.
That's what our enemies just did. And no matter how righteous your cause might be, when you support it by means of wanton slaughter, you forfeit any claim to the moral high ground. Last Monday morning, I suspect that most thinking Americans would have been willing to at least listen to the grievances of those in the Middle East who feel wronged by us. Last Tuesday morning, that became impossible.
DEMOCRACY AT WORK
So the claim that there might be some sort of moral equivalency between us and them is misguided at best, offensive at worst. Not that I don't understand where it's coming from. Our willingness to engage in unsparing self-examination and ruthless self-criticism is one of our finest traits. Our natural inclination is to try to take ownership of the problem, in order that we can take ownership of its solution. But that reflex is useless here. I mean, what are we to think? That if we outlawed the ACLU and sanctioned the oppression of gay people, if we felt our enemy's pain or tried to be less ``arrogant,'' we could ensure that no one will ever steer a plane into one of our buildings again?
This is, of course, foolishness. What happened last week did not happen because of any social movement in this country. It did not happen because of any failure of sensitivity. And with all due respect to the Rev. Falwell, it did not happen because God hijacked a plane.