OPINION & EDITORIAL
Hahn’s rhetoric obscures 9/11 lessons
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by Letters to the Editor
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Mike Hahn's article in remembrance of Sept. 11 ("Remembering 9/11") is unfortunately marred by an ethnocentrism that ultimately undermines the very cause he seeks to advance. Hahn asserts that the memory of the anguish the nation felt on Sept. 11 has been lost and that its recovery is necessary to win the War on Terror.
What he ignores, however, is the fact that our War on Terror regularly brings the kind of terrorism we faced for one day to people around the world every day of their lives. Since we invaded Iraq, over a million Iraqis have died as a result of our occupation. In Afghanistan, citizens live with the daily reality of NATO airstrikes, random detentions and the Orwellian Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, called by the United Nations "the most misogynist department in the world." Meanwhile, our ally Israel subverts the democratically elected government of Palestine and uses collective punishment to terrorize a society into submission.
Mr. Hahn's promotion of these policies misses entirely the real lesson of Sept. 11. The pain we felt on that day should not, as he suggests, be used to provide resolve for such policies. It should, on the contrary, give us all the more reason to abolish them.
Paul Heideman Graduate Student Afro-American Studies
Anonymous (September 12, 2007 @ 7:14am):
"Meanwhile, our ally Israel subverts the democratically elected government of Palestine "
Would that be the "government of Palestine" which states that Israel has no right to exist and that supports the murder of Jews simply because they are Jewish?
Anonymous (September 12, 2007 @ 10:28am):
Can anyone show me Palestine on the map? Oh, I forgot, there is none. I guess you could go back to British Palestine (now Israel), but those that call themselves Palestinian were not from that region. Those that call themselves Palestinean have been booted from virtually every country in the mideast, including Egypt and Jordan, Israel is the ONLY nation that gave them a thing and look at the way the "Palestineans" treat Israel. I guess I would be a bit ticked as well. Of course, Israel has made some mistakes and could do things differently from time to time, but when all your neighbors are pointing guns at you, I can see why they would be on edge.
Learn your history, don't rely on government schools for all your info.
Anonymous (September 12, 2007 @ 11:00am):
During WWII, did Americans ignore the fact that FDR's War on Fascism regularly inflicted the kind of terrorism we faced at Pearl Harbor to people around the world every day of their lives? After we invaded Normandy, did not millions of Europeans die as a result of FDR's occupation? In Japan, did citizens live with the daily reality of Allied firebombings, etc.?
Mr. Heideman's abysmal ignorance of war's costs misses entirely the lessons of history. The resolve average Americans felt after 9/11 should be directed toward defeating our Islamo-fascist enemies. It should not, on the contrary, provide Leftists any excuses to advocate policies of surrender-- as he suggests.
btw: What precisely is "ethnocentric" about defending our global civilization from these 8th-century jihadists? Will Mr. Heideman (Afro-Centric Studies) kindly inform us again, what race are Muslims?
/quod idiocy demonstrandum
Anonymous (September 12, 2007 @ 11:39am):
A million Iraqi's? Wow. Where'd you get that? That's more inflated than Al sharpton's ego/hair.
Anonymous (September 12, 2007 @ 1:00pm):
Wow, he says one thing about Palestinians and you hardcore pro-Israel kids are ready to go to war. I suppose that (from a purely statistical perspective) bombing civilians, bulldozing homes, burning property, kidnapping and assassinations on a weekly basis by the Israeli military fits into that "some mistakes category." And I wouldn't expect you to say "learn your history" as a pro-Israel argument, unless you don't acknowledge international law or care at all about human rights...
Anonymous (September 12, 2007 @ 1:12pm):
45k iraqis dead.
we're all tired of the lies.
plus, if a real right winger was prez...then the war would have been over 3 yrs ago...and THEN you could talk of millions dead.
last time i checked, islam was at war in every corner of the planet...with buddhists, hindus, jews, christians, africans, americans, asians.
and my favorite...other muslims.
google prophet of doom.
read up.
Anonymous (September 12, 2007 @ 4:18pm):
Hey there 1 PM,
The big difference is that Israel doesn't AIM TO KILL innocent civilians and even apologizing when innocents are killed BY MISTAKE. This is very different from the stated and achieved Palestinian objective of killing innocents, even aiming at schoolyards and school buses, much less the bragging/rejoicing at the intentional murder of innocents.
Anonymous (September 12, 2007 @ 5:03pm):
Israel did not exist before 1945. It IS the Palestinians land and they have the right to defend it.
Anonymous (September 12, 2007 @ 6:11pm):
"Israel did not exist before 1945."
ROFLMAO, ever hear of a guy named Abraham? I suppose you don't think his legitimate son existed either, just the bastard he had with the slave girl?
Anonymous (September 12, 2007 @ 6:45pm):
I meant that it has been Palestine since biblical times. There is no such thing as Israel
Anonymous (September 12, 2007 @ 7:10pm):
Put an end to the brutal terror of the Palestinian Authority complicit in the ethnic cleansing of indigenous Jews from their homeland of Israel.
Educate the world in order to place intense pressure upon the entity calling itself "Palestine" to respect the human rights of the Jewish people who have returned to their restored homeland.
Jews are entitled to self-determination, to live freely in their homeland. Zionism is just as valid as Palestinianism, but even more so because unlike the political "Arabian nation", the Zionist movement to "Palestine/the Land of Israel" represents a RETURN - not an invasion.
Let's face facts. We are told that there is a difference between extremist Islam and peace loving normal Islam. Judging by their behavior, Muslims are anti-West, anti-Democracy, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-Buddhist, and anti-Hindu. Muslims are involved in 25 of some 30 conflicts going on in the world: in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, East Timor, India, Indonesia (2 provinces), Kashmir, Kazakastan, Kosovo, Kurdistan, Macedonia, the Middle East, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Sudan, Russia-Chechnya, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uganda and Uzbekistan. Doesn't this mean that extremist Islam is the norm and normal Islam is extremely rare?
On Nov. 29, 1947 the United Nations General Assembly voted to legitimize the sovereignty of the restored state of Israel. If the 1.3 million Israeli Arabs are a model of peaceful coexistence, why are the 250,000 Jews living in Judea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights an obstacle to peace?
If the uprooting of Arab communities within the Green Line constitutes a blatant human rights violation, why is the uprooting of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria viewed as a contribution to peace?
There is not, nor has there ever been, a distinct "Palestinian" culture or language. Further, there has never been a Palestinian state governed by Arab Palestinians in history. Nor was there ever a serious Arab-Palestinian national movement, until 1964, which was three years *before* the Arabs of "Palestine" lost the West Bank [Judea and Samaria] and Gaza as a result of attacking Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War (which the Arabs started). Even the original so-called leader of the "Palestinian" people, Yasser Arafat, was Egyptian. In short, the so-called Arab "Palestinians" are a manufactured people. They are a people with no history and no authenticity whose sole purpose for existence is to destroy the Jewish State.
It's ethnocentric to claim that only a certain ethnic group has rights to own land, as is the claim made by the Arabs. Why are Arabs the only ones entitled to self-determination?
What would have happened if Jews had repopulated their homeland, and the Arabs opened up their arms and expressed brotherhood as their response to Europe's genocide of European Jews? It would have proven that it was not Zionism that caused this ongoing conflict, but the pan-Arabic racist reaction towards it.
Terror is not something one learns to live with. It is something which the Israel and US governments are obligated to completely destroy. No decent government should sit down and negotiate with murderers.
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