Friday, June 18, 2004

They Hate Us For What?

Matt Yglesias makes the obvious point about "why they hate us." Saying they (Islamic fundamentalists worldwide) hate us because we are free might sound cliched and maybe it is. But that doesn't mean it isn't true. They hate everything we are, because we aren't like them. They stay us for being in Iraq, but they'll still hate us the same if we leave Iraq (or if we never went). I hear a lot of my friends cower in isolationist sentiment in the face of terrorism, "we should just stay out of their business and then they won't bother us." But in this day and age, isolation is no longer an option. If we pull back all our resources (which not to mention, is next to impossible) what's to stop terrorists from staging coups in many different countries? Isolation is a short term solution that only creates more problems in the long run. They would hate us then too. They will hate us unless we all convert to Islamism. Which, even then, they probably won't find sufficent enough. That's why this war needs to be so proactive and needs to take the fight to the terrorists. If only the average American understood this...