Introspection Is For Traitors, or, They Hate Us Because We’re Beautiful

Ron Paul has often been referred to as the ‘Grandfather of the Tea Party’, yet despite the demographic’s ostensible devotion to his ideals of free market and free trade, empowered local government, sustainable spending, etc, it is all too often these very same people who find fault with him, and on some of his most respectable positions. This was the case during the CNN Tea Party Debate when Ron Paul was booed by the audience over his comments regarding 9/11.

First off, I will grant that these debates are not Dr Paul’s strong point. It is unfortunate that the whole affair has been boiled down over the years into a glib exchange of rehearsed, 30-second-soundbite talking points, and especially so for him. With such unpopular and relatively complex ideas to put forth, he sometimes must resort to unintelligibly stringing together seemingly unrelated points as fast as he can in order to squeeze in the quickest possible version of what he’d like to say, abridged to the point of incoherence. In cases such as this, I can understand being baffled and more than a bit put off, and I encourage the curious to seek out his relevant statements online. More often than not he will intelligently and soundly defend positions which many unfairly write off as ‘extremist’ or ‘crazy’.

This, however, is no case of Dr Paul trying to say too much with too little. In this case he is saying something very simple and straightforward, that being that our foreign policy directly affects other people around the world and that these people may resent us based on this. Combined with religious fervor, with the belief in a higher power that gives its blessing to righteous retribution, could this resentment not be sufficient to drive one to sacrifice one’s life in an attempt revisit upon us some small part of the suffering we’ve visited on others? Our foreign policy involves American military bases spread throughout the middle east (and world). It has involved us propping up repressive and unpopular regimes to further our interests. It has involved us standing beside and providing advanced weaponry for a nation established by Westerners, in their infinite wisdom, atop the bulldozed ruins of Palestinian homes. Since 9/11 it has involved us invading two sovereign nations in the area and bombing various others. Even with our advanced technology, bombs are going to kill civillians. War, conflict, occupation, call it what you will, inevitably involves collateral damage. To be beneath the heel of a foreign power, even if that power is ostensibly present for one’s own benefit, is surely a most painful, suffocating and degrading thing! Certainly it is understandable to at least question whether or not our foreign policy, being carried out at least in part to protect us, is creating more enemies than it could ever defeat.

Yet Paul’s explanation of his 9/11 theory was in response to the claim of another candidate, Rick Santorum, that his ‘parroting Osama bin Laden’ was irresponsible. Santorum believes that we are hated because the muslim world is ideologically opposed to our message of freedom, but that notion isn’t even what I write to protest. For the sake of argument let’s assume that Paul is wrong, and that terrorists hate us because we are free and prosperous. Fair enough, but that’s not what Santorum was discussing. He didn’t attack Paul’s idea that our foreign policy resulted in terrorist threats to our nation, explaining why the theory was flawed and inaccurate, he attacked Paul’s very act of suggesting that idea, the act of introspection, just as Giuliani did in the last election. Unfortunately, this only makes his statement all the more sad and absurd. We Americans have long been possessed of a certain sense of exceptionalism, believing ourselves capable of policing the world, righting other people’s wrongs, and molding other nations in our image. This outright hostility to Paul’s message, however, takes the game to a new level. It’s not just that the likes of Santorum and Giuliani disagree with him, it’s that they attack Paul himself for daring to voice such an idea. It’s the idea that Paul is irresponsible or insensitive for wondering if blowback resulting from our intervention in foreign affairs may have caused resentment which at least contributed to the attacks of 9/11. It’s the idea that ‘we are good’ and ‘they are bad’ and to say anything different is to betray this country and the memory of those who perished in 9/11 and those who have died since, which I never believed anybody took seriously until I heard the audience reactions from these debates. Could our heads be any deeper in the sand?

It’s as simple as ‘actions have consequences’. The idea of foreign intervention involving varied and unintended consequences is sound, reasonable, and supported by empirical evidence, but sadly I here defend the very act of expressing the idea. Santorum, Giuliani, audience, whether or not you agree that it is so, it is not irresponsible to consider that one’s own actions may have been part of a problem. In fact, to look at oneself first when seeking fault has long been considered great wisdom. We are but men, after all, and for all of our advances we are frustratingly prone to making even basic mistakes. Just look at us! As a nation we have literally reached the moon, yet for all that we are hamstrung by financial irresponsibility. If one truly wishes to know the truth of a matter one must objectively seek that truth as the primary goal. It cannot be second to some belief which one holds sacred, especially such a belief as in the infallibility of oneself or one’s nation. Much greater historical tragedies than 9/11, such as China’s Cultural Revolution, have taken place through such refusal to challenge popular dogma and self-examine. (We are starving. Clearly it’s not because communism has failed and our great leader Mao has no clue what he’s doing, so it must be due to the continued presence of such bourgeoisie counter-revolutionaries as ‘doctors’ and ‘professors’ and ‘engineers’). If the War on Terror continues to create a political atmosphere in which it is frowned upon or even dangerous to question the wisdom of our own actions, then we will continue to make the same mistakes and create more enemies while chasing shadows. (Terrorists attacked us. Clearly it’s not because our foreign policy is aggressive and otherwise voiceless peoples resent our often violent meddling in their affairs, so it must be due to the muslim world’s hatred of freedom and our need for a stronger military presence abroad to quell such evil). It’s the same, sad pattern, and while it’s just the sort of thing one might have expected from Maoist China, it’s hardly becoming of the United States.

Surreal as it is that I must conclude thus, introspection and questioning of one’s own actions are in fact quite healthy and responsible. It is through such action that one may experience personal growth, or a nation reform counterproductive policy. Such introspection may also reveal that the problem is indeed external, that one’s personal conduct or a nation’s policy is sound, and people will surely disagree. The examination itself, however, is neither dangerous, irresponsible, nor insensitive, and to attack it as such is to promote an incredibly backwards and counterproductive mentality.

Oh, and you can stop assuming that terrorists hate us because we’re free and prosperous now.