I Thought They Hated Us for Our Freedoms

Mike the Mad Biologist

You mean, conservatives lied to us? From the NY Times coverage of the guilty plea by Faisal Shahzad in Times Square bombing plot:

…Mr. Shahzad was unapologetic, characterizing himself as “part of the answer to the U.S. terrorizing the Muslim nations and the Muslim people.”

“I want to plead guilty, and I’m going to plead guilty 100 times over,” he said, “because until the hour the U.S. pulls its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, and stops the drone strikes in Somalia and Yemen and in Pakistan, and stops the occupation of Muslim lands, and stops killing the Muslims, and stops reporting the Muslims to its government, we will be attacking U.S., and I plead guilty to that.”

…But he said “one has to understand where I’m coming from.” He said that he considered himself “a Muslim soldier,” and that United States and NATO forces had attacked Muslim lands.

Judge Cedarbaum interjected: “But not the people who were walking in Times Square that night. Did you look around to see who they were?”

Mr. Shahzad replied, “Well, the people select the government; we consider them all the same.”

“Including the children?” the judge asked.

“Well, the drone hits in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Mr. Shahzad replied, “they don’t see children; they don’t see anybody. They kill women, children. They kill everybody. It’s a war. And in war, they kill people. They’re killing all Muslims.”

Actions, meet consequences. Not excusing this at all, but this stuff isn’t occurring in a vacuum. It certainly has nothing to do with “hating our freedoms.” And this time we got lucky.

Comments

#1 JohnV
June 22, 2010

One of the idiots on the radio this morning, in reaction to this story started yelling about how “DRONES AREN’T HUMAN.”

In other news, she apparently thinks the Terminator movies are documentaries.
#2 D. C. Sessions
June 22, 2010

Ah, but those Predator drones are operated by uniformed members of the United States Armed forces in complete compliance with the treaties agreed to by all parties involved.

Oh, wait …
#3 dhogaza
June 22, 2010

One of the idiots on the radio this morning, in reaction to this story started yelling about how “DRONES AREN’T HUMAN.”

Strictly speaking, neither are car bombs …
#4 Russell
June 22, 2010

Well, no. While some of the people the US kills are indeed Muslim, it’s pretty damn clear to anyone who hasn’t bought into some deeply disturbed worldview that the US is not “killing all Muslims.” The notion that the struggle is “US vs. Muslim” is something that our own wingnuts encourage, and something readily accepted by some Muslim extremists. I would hope that most liberals have a more realistic outlook.
#5 Rob
June 22, 2010

OBL told us why they attack us. Is this really that surprising? They hate us (not being an apologist, but it IS understandable) for our foreign policy. Look at the games we played in Iran back in the 80s. Really that shocking?
#6 Tang
June 22, 2010

By the same standard of blowback, it should be acceptable to carpet-bomb the Hajj in retaliation for the WTC attack. The 1993 one.
#7 zayiflama lida fx15 ve biber hapi zlfvbh
June 22, 2010

Yes. Look at the games we played in Iran back in the 80s. Really that shocking?
#8 Pierce R. Butler
June 22, 2010

D. C. Sessions @ # 2: … those Predator drones are operated by uniformed members of the United States Armed forces …

Well, at least the operators are paid by the US, under the nominal command of somebody who took an oath to follow the laws and the Constitution…
#9 Frank Abernathy
June 25, 2010

All the more reason to get off of oil. There is a way to make a closed energy loop using solar power out in the deserts where nobody lives to generate electricity using parabolic mirrors. Break down water into hydrogen and oxygen, ship both of them out either in pipes or tanker trucks to be burned in power plants retrofitted for this. The same energy used to break down the water is released when the oxygen and hydrogen are burned together, generating only pure water which can be collected and returned to the desert to be re-used. The main wrinkle is hydrogen is hard to store but they use it in spaceships all the time, so there is a way to store it.