US Election 2004

After September 11, 2001, historian John Lewis delivered a lecture to his Ashland University class which established principles for America’s response to the terrorist attacks.  Today is a good day to reread the entire lecture, which begins:

On September 11, 2001 America was attacked. What happened in New York was not a criminal act … This is war. The attackers must be destroyed.

Why is it not a criminal act? First, the scale of the slaughter is far beyond criminal activity … Second, it had no "criminal" motive: i.e., robbery, or passion against an individual. But most important, the resources required to carry out the attack, especially training given the pilots, were on the scale of that available only to governments.

The moral, political, economic, and religious support necessary for these attacks have been provided over the past 25 years by specific governments in the Middle East. Those governments wish to destroy the Great Satan: America, freedom, achievement, trade, values, reason. This is a war against America, her core values, and the prosperity that has followed from our pursuit of those values. The enemy is first and foremost any government who supports the active opponents of those values. This is the material fact that we must face.

The particular people involved in the particular acts of war of Sep 11 are not the reason for retaliation. The purpose is not to "punish" those who have started this war. Punishment is not a concept that applies here. We did not punish the pilots who attacked Pearl Harbor-we destroyed the government of Japan, and imposed a constitutional government that has benefited everyone (most of all the Japanese) ever since. [J. Lewis, Hatred of Western Civilization: Why Terrorists Attacked America, Capitalism Magazine, 9/8/2004]

John Lewis

Image Source: Capitalism Magazine

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