Get out of our country

It's hard to believe that grown-up men are still reciting George W. Bush's juvenile mantra of "why they hate us." You know, "because of our freedoms." Pat Buchanan nails the reason why this hackneyed refrain gets repeated, long after intelligent people have gained enough knowledge to know better.

For centuries, Muslims sat over in their part of the world hurling anathema at the licentious West for its immoral, decadent ways, while Westerners, in turn, scorned the Muslims' "backward" traditions. For years, there existed a grudging live and let live peace between the two diametrically opposed cultures. In recent decades, if there were Muslim oligarchs who would have liked to stir up trouble with the West, the weaponry of the Western nations, especially that of the United States, kept such notions in check. It was not until the United States, after being drawn into partisan conflicts in the Middle East and physically intruding into Muslim territories that their curses turned brutally vengeful.

In Is the War Coming Home?, Buchanan considers the factors that radicalized the men who most recently expressed their outrage through violent actions – the passenger who tried to blow up an airliner, the soldier who shot dead 13 fellow soldiers, another who sought to massacre scores of people in Times Square, and the imam who acts as inspiration to Muslims to commit jihad against Americans.

Were these men lifetime haters of the United States, including the one who was born here, and the other who became a naturalized citizen? Buchanan observes that, "All were converted in manhood into haters of America ... And the probability is high that there are many more like them living amongst us who wish to bring the war in the Af-Pak here to America."

Instead of working to decipher what in the minds of Muslims is behind this current burst of violence, immature American ideologues continue reciting their feeble clichés, none of which explains why Muslims, after centuries of non-violence towards the West, have reverted to horrific assaults from a bygone era. New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently added his canny insight, by explaining that we are hated because "this country is so great." And Wall Street Journal pundit Bret Stephens would like to believe that Muslim hatred is rooted in our "popular culture." It's because of "Lady Gaga," he writes, along with Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, and a host of other Hollywood sexpots, as well as Playboy, the pill, women's lib and gay rights.

Buchanan calls such rationalizations "comforting thoughts" to those who hold them, because they absolve us of the need to think. "Yet, this is as self-delusional," he writes, "as saying the FLN [National Liberation Front] set off bombs in movie theaters and cafes in Algiers to kill the French because of what Brigitte Bardot was doing on screen in And God Created Woman.

No doubt, this country's toxic culture gives devout Muslims reason to despise our way of life, but, says Buchanan, "It is not why they come here to kill us." In reality, "Mohammad Atta's friends did not target Hollywood, but centers and symbols of U.S. military and political power."

Buchanan reminds us that "U.S. Marines [in 1983] were not attacked by Hezbollah until we inserted those Marines into Lebanon's civil war. No Iraqi committed an act of terror against us before we invaded Iraq." He writes:

Osama bin Laden declared war on us, first and foremost, to end the massive U.S. presence on sacred Saudi soil that is home to Mecca and Medina. Some may insist this was not his real motive. But, apparently, the Saudis believed him, for they quickly kicked us out of Prince Sultan Air Base.

As for the Taliban ... their stated grievance is the same as Gen. Washington's in our war with the British: If you want this war to end, get out of our country.

What all of these angry men have in common is their desire to exact retribution for our killing their fellow Muslims. "We are being attacked over here because we are over there," declares Buchanan. Unlike the skimpy media coverage in this country that is given to the wars and occupation, Muslims all over the world are well informed of what is going on "over there." As reported to Lew Rockwell by an American soldier stationed in Afghanistan, here is the type of scenario that is raising the consciousness of people throughout Europe and Asia:

It is like the Wild West – no one cares what you do; we are just driving and walking around the desert shooting at dudes on motorcycles and getting shot and blown up by IEDs and RPGs. We are like 50 miles from the next patrol base and no one gives a f--k about what we do here.

And a soldier's letter to Laurence Vance, also at the Lew Rockwell site:

I wanted to let you know that as a current member of the U.S. military who has been deployed five times to the Middle East, we ARE NOT fighting to defend America's freedom – we are murdering innocent people and those just fighting to protect their family and livelihoods. My enlistment is up in just over a month and I cannot wait to get out there and be more vocal against this murderous evil empire. I hope that my being a veteran will help give me some credibility.

This is the manner in which the world's Greatest Super Power conducts its "wars." No accountability and random murder, not unlike the aggressions of ghetto gangbangers.

And they hate us for our "freedoms?"