If the terrorists were Christian Fundamentalists...

do you think left-leaning types would be squealing for the US to review its policies and look for the “root cause” of the hate? (i.e., blame the victim). I mean, you you never hear cries from the left for a review of abortion policies when a clinic is blasted by some right wing nutjob. Why does the distance + turban make a diff?

Is it not religious fanaticism religious fanaticism no matter its origin? Why do some folks have such a hard time wrapping their heads around this concept. Is moral relativism and cynicism towards our govt THAT deeply ingrained.

The bombing of an abortion clinic, while horrible, did not cost the lives of 6000+ people. That’s number one.

Number two is that the Arab community has gained a reputation for religious fanaticism by attacking Israel not once, not twice, but three times en masse. If that isn’t fanaticism, I don’t know what is.

Now, not all Muslims are fanatics, but you never hear about people that mind their own business. You only hear about the cranks. And if all you hear about is the “crazy Arabs”, aren’t you likely to believe it?

If this had been done by anyone I think we’d want some heads to roll. It’s just coincidence that we find out it’s most likely a Muslim fanatic.

Jerry Falwell is squealing about the “root cause” and blaming the victim, and he is not left-leaning. I would go further, but it has been covered.

Speleophile is a left leaning type who wishes to answer.

Looking for the root cause of hate is not inherently “blame the victim”. Sometimes the “victim” has done plenty to deserve the hate. Ain’t the case here. It was the case say, 100+ years ago and later when Native Americans were massacring whites. I’d say they had plently of good reason, but that’s a whole other discussion, and like I said, it ain’t the case here. I know I don’t have to tell you that there are nutjobs on the left just like on the right. I won’t paint your whole group with the nutballs and hope you’ll return the favor.

You’re exactly right, it is religious fanaticism either way - the abortion clinc bombers and these a**holes who attacked New York and the Pentagon.

I don’t think a “blame the victim” mentality is behind such comments, but rather people who have had an issue with some aspects of U.S. foreign policy all along are using this incident to further their agenda. Whether their position is right or wrong, using the attack in this way is dispicable. Even if you have sincere problems with U.S. policy in the middle east, to suggest that the attack is somehow justified or something we should have expected is the liberal answer to Jerry Falwell’s basically equivalent and equally misguided attempt to link it to the ACLU and PFAW. I dispise these remarks just as some of my friends to the political right have expressed dismay over Falwell’s comments.

Hmmm, a Christian fundamentalist is suspected of bombing an abortion clinic. Said person is from Georgia. Therefore, we should carpet-bomb Georgia back into the stone age.

There. Am I thinking like you want me to, now? :rolleyes:

Normally, the spewings of punkassed rightwingers like you roll off my back, but not today. These heinous LIES you hold so close to your bosom that Liberals are evil and the only good, true, and patriotic Americans are Conservatives have to stop. Some nut will take it to heart and kill a good person in the name of All That is Righteous and Holy, just like the terrorists we are ALL fighting. Either get a clue about the true roots of America’s strength, its diversity of people AND of opinion, or slink back to the dumpster you belong in.

I heard that Falwell is hiding out in Lynchburg, Virginia, but the state assembly refuses to give him up. They even have paramilitary organizations in places with names like, Virginia Military Institute.

Jesus Christ, dropzone.

Are you kidding? Just because I disagree with you on most substantive issues doesn’t mean we can’t discuss them rationally.

I don’t consider liberals any less patriotic than conservatives. I just disagree with your vision of the direction this country should be going. No big deal.

I know you weren’t necessarily speaking to me, but I still had to chime in with my two cents.

You know, that is normally my line and this is where somebody tells me to shut the fuck up because they weren’t talking to me. Flyboy, we really have to get our roles straight here. :wink:

No, I wasn’t talking to you. No, I have no major problems with regular, moderately conservative people like you. I live in a solidly Republican area; at home, Hyde is my congressman and at work the district is represented by Hastert. I was a member of the TeenAged Republicans, leaving the party when the liberal wing (yes, there was one) was purged in the 70s. Long ago I learned how to peacefully coexist with fairly conservative people.

It’s the idea, current in some farther right-wing circles and suggested in the OP, and some other threads on boards where I couldn’t, um, speak my mind, that liberals do not take the current crisis as seriously as conservatives and that a prudent investigation is “moral relativism” and “blaming the victim.” If we of the left do not stand up to bullying by nuts on the right, it will be seen as a tacit admission that they are correct. They are not.

<< I mean, you you never hear cries from the left for a review of abortion policies when a clinic is blasted by some right wing nutjob. >>

I’m not sure what you’re saying here. You think that the left approves bombing of abortion clinics? Or you think that the left approves the terrorist attacks of last week?

The left (if one can generalize) has taken the same stance in both cases – punish those responsible, and try to reach others with education (“How can you be pro-life and want to kill medical professionals?”). The root causes of the right-wing Christian fanaticism are fairly well known to the public at large, the root causes of Islamic fanaticism are not.

I’d like to take the “left-leaning” and “right-leaning” angles out of the argument entirely, and simply ask this question of the OP:

Why do you equate looking for the “root cause of the hate” with “blaming the victim”? The two are not related in any way.

If a man murders his next-door neighbor, the investigators will try to establish a motive. They’ll ask “What drove him to do this?” Nobody that asks this question is accused of trying to blame the victim. It’s just part of the investigative process. How was the crime committed?, What was the motive?

So why do you view any attempt to establish a motive on the part of the terrorists as an attempt to blame the victim? Nobody killed in the attacks deserved to die, and nobody I have heard commenting on the “root cause” has suggested anything of the sort. We have heard plenty of analysis of our policy in the Middle East this week, but then we have always heard analysis of our policy in the Middle East.

In my book, anyone suggesting that the attack was justified is a nutjob. But anyone who refuses to wonder about the motivation behind the attack is unwilling to look at reality.

I apologize for lumping all left-of-center folks in with the most radical. I wouldn’t appreciate being lumped in with Pat Robertson :/.

The target of my scorn, really, were the folks so used to pointing out the sins of US foreign policy that they found it hard to break the habit, even after an attack by the rightest of right wing extremists.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to link them to the more familiar, more local, right wing nutjobs to those people, “look, it’s the same damn thing.”

Absolutely. I’ve read everything I can read on the Taliban and bin Laden. They, unlike the Palestinians, have no legitimate beef.

See? We’re all going to turn into a bunch of moderates and then what will we have to talk about?

The original poster’s point is well-taken. Suppose, just for the heck of it, that the bombers had turned out to be members of the Montana militia, or some other band of similar racist, “conservative” loonies.

Do you think ANY liberals would be wringing their hands and asking “WHY do those people hate us? Perhaps our policies DROVE them to that.”

Do you think ANY liberals would be saying “Don’t take action against them! Hate and violence only lead to MORE hate and violence. Let’s bomb the militia men with love.”

Do you think ANY liberals would be saying, “Montana has a rugged terrain, and the militiamen know that terrain well. If we send in soldiers or policemen to stop them, there’ll be a bloodbath. Don’t get involved in a war with them!”

I think we all know the answer.

  1. We don’t have to ask that. Jagoffs like you are only too happy to TELL us.

  2. Actually, that IS the “Christian” response. “Turn the other cheek” and all.

  3. And will you suggest nuking Montana?

Take your fantasies about what pussies liberals are and fuck yourself bloody with them. We killed plenty of conservative Southerners in the Civil War. We killed plenty of right-wing Germans in WWII. It’s not pretty when you fuck with us.

Gosh, dropzone, you sure set ME straight! A guy who spells “jackoff” with a “g” MUST know what he’s talking about. And your powers of rhetoric, whoa! I was so sure I was right, but the moment you called me a pussy, I was blown away by your intellect and vocabulary, and saw the error of my ways!

Just wondering… how much did your parents pay for your education, and is it too late for them to demand a refund?

Incidentally, drop, YOU didn’t kill any Johnny Rebs and YOU didn’t kill a single Nazi. You’re nobody, same as the rest of us, and you don’t scare anybody.

But feel free to have another beer, and go back to fantasizing about all the Krauts you gunned down at the Bulge.

Don’t mind if I do. (mumbling) Goddamn skinhead punks. We showed THEIR asses in '45, didn’t we?

And “jagoff” is a variant spelling and is perfectly acceptable. At least, where calling people things like that is acceptable.

Oh, and I paid for it myself with my own earnings from a menial service job. It shows, doesn’t it?