Talk Story
WHO was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon? Human nature demands we pin the blame someplace. Everyone can play the
terrorism blame game,
and they doOsama bin Laden's anti-American rhetoric has convinced most Americans that, in the president's words, he is sufficiently guilty of terrorism to be smoked out dead or alive, but the immediate reaction for many was to point fingers elsewhere.
Airport security got immediate blame and attention, but on Sept. 12, the intelligence establishment took big hits. A former Pentagon terrorism analyst called the attacks "a major failure of U.S. intelligence gathering," in a Boston Herald report.
"Terrorism experts formerly with the FBI, the Department of Defense and the CIA were mystified that the highly organized plot ... could have been carried out without any U.S. intelligence personnel getting wind of it."
The U.S. intelligence network is "a Cold War antique," Robert Steele, a retired CIA officer told the Herald. He places the blame on America's addiction to expensive technology. "Anybody with a brain knows that if you stay off the phone, you are virtually undetectable to the U.S. intelligence apparatus," he said.
Many fingers also pointed at the U.S. policy toward Israel and Palestine, specifically our unequivocal support for Israel. In response, Abraham Foxman, national director for the Anti-Defamation League, said we should blame the terrorists, not Israel.
Writing in the Jewish Standard of New Jersey, Foxman said the reasons we were targeted were "the American presence in Saudi Arabia and its willingness to protect other states in the region from extremists, whether Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden."
Even if Israel didn't exist, "bin Laden and his cohorts would still see America as their prime enemy. American culture ... stands in direct opposition to the medieval, anti-democratic ideology of the Islamic extremists."
By now everyone knows Jerry Falwell laid the attack at the feet of a sinful America, gays, lesbians, feminists, pro-choicers and the ACLU. They "caused God to lift the veil of protection that has allowed no one to attack America on our soil since 1812."
In 1815, Gen. Andrew Jackson fought off a British attack on New Orleans, part of the United States since 1803 -- but we catch Falwell's drift.
Pat Robertson chimed in and blamed "organizations within the U.S. that have labored unceasingly to strip religious values from our public square and, in the process, to take away the mantle of divine protection which our nation has enjoyed ever since the days of its founding."
In turn, Lorri L. Jean, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, blamed fanaticism of the same kind that "enables people like Jerry Falwell to preach hate against those who do not think, live or love in the exact same way he does."
Joe Guzzardi, writing in the Lodi (Calif.) Sentinel blamed the U.S. government, multiculturalism and "deeply flawed immigration policies." He specifically names Teddy Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and a host of senators and representatives responsible for liberalized immigration policies.
Daniel Griswold, of the Cato Institute, says not to blame immigration, however. "The problem is not that we are letting too many people into the U.S., but that the government is not keeping out the wrong people.
"Immigration and border control are two distinct issues," Griswold said.
Everything might have changed on Sept. 11, except the political right's favorite scapegoat. Conservatives blame Bill Clinton for virtually everything, including the Sept. 11 attacks.
"America, sadly, may end up paying a heavy price for Bill Clinton and the major media's complicity," wrote Christopher Ruddy for NewsMax.com.
And there we are. Despite the fact that conservative commentators and talk-show hosts now make up a major segment of the American news media, they unashamedly lay the ultimate blame on the media.
Even messengers want to kill the messengers.
"Yep, son," wrote Walt Kelly, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.
