Liberals Against Terror

First, it seems that conservatives have lumped all who are to their left as liberals. Leftists will gladly distinguish themselves from liberals

Second, from one of the king liberals himself, that is Noam Chomsky, you fight terrorism by not practicing it. You also fight terrorism by not instigating it. You also fight terrorism, and this is related to both of the previous reasons, by not killing a massive number of civilians as has been done in Afghanistan and Iraq. You can also fight terrorism by treating it as the crime it is and go after specific terrorist leaders

Third, on the eve of proliferation, you add to the previous list that the best way to fight terrorism is through persuasion. Once we are past the eve of proliferation, the more we have depended on force, the greater the chance that the eve of proliferation will give way to the dawn of armageddon. And this will probably occur in my kids', and possibly my own, lifetime.

Fourth, one necessary prerequisite to winning through persuasion is to retire from making self-righteous proclamations that excuse oneself from following the standards that you have set for others.

So Americans instigate terrorism? Kinda like that 9/11 you liberals say we did. Thank you for proving my point!

Charguy,
You have not made a point for anyone to prove. Consider the number coups we participated in, the violence we have supported, and the dictators we kept in power. Yes, we instigated a reaction.

The reaction was wrong but if you keep pushing people, they will push back.

Unfortunately, conservatives use an exclusive-or logic in analyzing 9/11. Either it is the terrorists' fault or it is our fault but not both. Such a model is not supported by history. The terrorists' are responsible for the horrible atrocities of 9-11. We are responsible for stirring that anger with our own wrongdoings. The kind of logic we need here is conjunction, not exclusive-or.

Such a point of view is difficult for some conservatives because such conservatives are offended when people do not flatter them or the US. Like every country in the world, the US has good points and bad points. Some of our bad points have come back to haunt us. Any other view is simply a denial of the history of our involvement in the Middle East.