Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal is apparently being criticized for saying that the United States bares some responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.
I thought that by now we'd be far enough along in the stages of mourning to start to ask tough questions about that, but given the war in Iraq (which still has nothing to do with domestic terrorism) and the general political split of the nation, perhaps not.
Let's state the obvious... she isn't saying that the attacks were justified, and I doubt anyone with a shred of common sense would say they were. But the focus since then has been all wrong. The questions raised always have to do with how it happened and not why it happened.
Some aspects of U.S. foreign policy goes a long way in pissing people off. Just look at the mess in Iraq. We more or less destroyed half of the country with zero justification because we could. The only thing that did pan out was Saddam's brutality, but that was more than a decade ago, and not any different from what has been going on in Northern Africa and the former Yugoslavia. Odd how we've not instituted "regime change" in those places.
That's just one example, and there are plenty more. We are the greatest power in the world, but with that power comes a great deal of responsibility. The bullshit cop out from Bush about "they hate freedom" is weak. "They" don't hate freedom, "they" see a country that does what it pleases, stomping out cultures, races and religions because it can. I'm sure as Americans we don't see our actions that way, but how many things in your daily life show that perception is reality? Put yourself in someone else's shoes just for a minute.
Hard questions lead to difficult discussions. It doesn't mean we shouldn't have them.