Shortly after the attacks on 9/11, a stunned nation struggled to explain how such noxious hatred could have formed and congealed into the heinous plot that took the lives of so many innocent people. In a statement that still ranks amongst the most feeble-minded insults to America’s intelligence, George W. Bush proclaimed that “they hate us for our freedom.”
As observers who were less dim-witted than the inarticulate, persistently mediocre, dynastic runt who occupied the White House began to weigh in on the post-9/11 analysis, there were reasoned commentaries that outlined how the foreign policy of the United States could have contributed to the response taken by the Al Qaeda extremists. Many nationalistic Arabs and Islamic zealots resented our meddling in their affairs. However, when the thoughtful experts who offered these insights came forward, they were quickly castigated for what daft conservatives called “blaming America.” Any suggestion that our own actions might have set off the radical fringe groups in the Middle East was tantamount to treason.
Cut to April 2013. The aftermath of the Boston marathon bombing predictably inflamed the same small-minded wingnuts who fell for Bush’s tripe and they are now resorting to a “blame America” pose of their own. With a president whom they regard as illegitimate, unqualified, and unfamiliar with their brand of white, Christian pseudo-patriotism, it is suddenly acceptable to assign responsibility for a terrorist act to the government they simultaneously love and hate.
Yesterday on his radio program, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade explicitly laid the blame for the the Boston tragedy on the steps of the White House:
“[Y]ou talk to these radicals in the Middle East and they say, ‘America, don’t get involved, leave us alone.’ So like it or not, this president has left them alone. And guess what happens? Now the IEDs are blowing up in our streets. So what are we supposed to learn from that?”
Setting aside the fact that Kilmeade offered no evidence of Obama having “left alone” any Middle East nation, or otherwise abandoning our interests in the region, his remarks plainly assert that the events of the past week in Boston were the fault of America’s behavior, rather than that of the perpetrators. In late 2001, that would have been considered blasphemy. In addition, Kilmeade is presuming that there is a jihadist component to the marathon bombing for which there is currently no proof.
Not to be left out, Fox’s Bill O’Reilly penned an op-ed that espoused the familiar and disturbing notion that “Freedom puts all of us at risk.” This might have been a perfectly reasonable articulation of the view that a free people are necessarily exposed to risks due to limitations on the part of government to interfere with their private lives. But that is not what O’Reilly meant. At the end of the same paragraph he disparagingly referred to the “security be damned” “zealots” who protest privacy invasions like warrantless wiretapping, “stop and frisk,” and deadly drone missions that too often result in the loss of innocent lives. So O’Reilly clearly does regard freedom as a dispensable impediment to security.
The rest of O’Reilly’s article is a laughable defense of his absurd statement that the Boston marathon bombing was not a tragedy by some imaginary definition he concocted. He doubles down on that theme by asserting that the desire of fanatics who want to kill us “is not tragic; it is real.” And he concludes by demanding that Obama “bring a sense of urgency to terrorism.” How Obama should behave differently, and where the lack of urgency is, O’Reilly never bothers to explain.
Both of these Fox News mouthpieces are advancing the notion that the harm done to America is of its own making. And unlike the rational perspectives put forth by informed analysts after 9/11, O’Reilly and Kilmeade are unable to support their positions which are nothing more than diatribes aimed at an administration they detest. What is certain is that their conservative brethren will fail to condemn them for blaming America, as they did when others were accused of the same offense. Apparently blaming America is just fine if it’s done by right-wingers who can’t form a coherent argument, and it’s aimed at a Democratic president they blame for everything else anyway.
These are the same people who said we needed another terrorist attack to justify their view of how bad this administration is in protecting us. Well, now they got their wish and they are not going to let it go without using it as a political weapon to attack Obama, moreover, they seem to be quite happy about it. It was the outgoing Clinton administration who warned Bush, when he was coming in to illegally occupy the White House, of the threat of terrorism and they promptly laughed at them, declared the adults were in charge and promptly set out to restart Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ program to enrich their comrades in the military industrial complex, fuck everything else! For the competence of the ‘adults’ in that disaster aka, the Bush administration, we got 9-11. Thank you very much! These assholes even had the audacity to say repeatedly on the Fox network and the rest of the right wing echo chamber that Bush kept us safe for eight years by the end of his second term, even though we were a good 8 months into this administration when 911 occurred(Bush had already taken a 30 day vacation in August). Excuuuuuuuuse me! They ignored all the warnings they were getting and their incompetence contributed mightily to the 911 disaster, furthermore, I don’t think the victims of 911 would agree with the claim they were kept safe. Fuck Kelmeade and O’Reilly! They and all the right wing echo chamber will be pounding this meme for the next several months, ad nauseum, so get ready for the lies and misinformation to come pouring out!
I wonder how Kilmeade would explain the drone campaign in the Middle East, the one conservatives deemed an illegal act of war on Obama’s part. I wonder if Rand Paul considers Obama not being serious about terrorism after his filibuster over domestic drone policy. It seems odd that these same voices accuse Obama of sensationalism by including Sandy Hook families in the discussion of gun control, then turn around and immediately politicize this tragedy.
The same folks who are now blaming America for the Boston Marathon bombing are the ones who castigated Rev. Wright when he said that some of the animus other nations have for us can be traced to the way we have conducted ourselves on the world stage. I’m a retired high school social studies teacher, and he’s right. Millions of Americans don’t know that a major reason the Iranian government doesn’t trust us is because we interfered in their government in the 1950s and late 1970s. Had President Eisenhower not approved a CIA intervention in Iran in the 1950s, the nation would most likely have a representative democracy, and not a theocracy today. Iran had established a secular democracy, but because it was going to nationalize its oil and BP was pissed, the CIA secretly invaded the country and undermined its government, which led to the removal as the nation’s PM, Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh, who nationalized the oil industry. These same Americans wouldn’t countenance having a foreign government interfere in our government but seem to think it’s okay to interfere in the governments of other nations. In the eyes of many republicans, Rev. Wright had to be attacked for his opinions because he had ties to now-President Obama. He had to be used to “show” Americans that Obama was the devil incarnate who hates America, just like Rev. Wright. Never mind that Rev. Wright did what a lot of these mouthpieces didn’t do–he had the courage to actually fight in the Vietnam War while many of his detractors sat out the war by securing multiple deferments.
Since when are “tragic” and “real” mutually exclusive?
It is April 20,2013 by April 21,2013 the right wing nuts will be in full force,placing blame on President Obama,the FBI,the DOJ and everyone else in the Obama Administration for the Boston Marathon bombing.They will not offer any facts to support their claims
I agree with you Majii. How America has conducted itself in foreign affairs has generated a great deal of animus. It is one of those dirty little secrets that everyone but the Americans themselves knows. However, it is still unknown if what you said is the cause behind this latest attack.
It is still important to also think about America’s domestic policies. What type of social constructionist malfeasance could have led to such a disaster?
Still, it is a great article as always, Mark.