Over at Making Light, commenter Terry Karney composes the speech we should have heard on September 12, 2001.
"There are people who are willing to commit heinous acts to change what we do, who we are, and how we act.We are not the only nation to face such problems, the Basque separatists in Spain, the Tigers in Sri Lanka, the IRA in Ireland; and the UK, all have afflicted those nations.
[snip]
If we overreact, and give up our liberties, villainize those who share nothing more than nation, language or religion with those who have attacked us, be they Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Jew; Nationalist or religious fanatic, then we not only grant them a minor victory in a skirmish, but cede to them the field of battle. For if we let them make us demonize those with whom we have no quarrel, we will forfeit allies.
No, rather we shall affirm what we have always been. We have made mistakes; and for those we must own up, but nothing we have done justifies the targetting, the killing, the terrorising of a nation, much less the random killing of those who were not Americans, but merely victims of circumstance.
There's more at the link.
Posted by Linkmeister at September 13, 2007 11:24 AM | TrackBack