Why Terrorists Hate America

The commonly understood reason why terrorists wish to kill and maim Americans is because they hate our freedoms. That’s what’s behind all the civilian violence: they hate our freedoms. You can go ahead and enumerate all the freedoms the terrorists hate, but it doesn’t really matter which ones –freedom to assemble publicly with unmarried members of the opposite sex; freedom to participate in an electoral charade; freedom to watch nudity on television. The very concept of freedom is an affront to these heartless killers.

After the Boston Marathon bombs, there might be another reason worth considering, a reason that some unpatriotic thinkers have been suggesting since September 11, 2001.

Maybe terrorists don’t hate our freedoms. Maybe they hate our policies.

The surviving suspect in Boston indicated that his brother and he were outraged at U.S. involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Other captured evildoers have indicated that their terrorism was inspired by America’s constant meddling in the Arab world and beyond.

We can no longer ask ourselves, “What is it that these terrorists really want?” We know what they want. The question now is, “Knowing what they want, how are we going to behave?”

The smart money says: “as we please.” As we always have, acting our customary role of the arrogantly swaggering bully, the superpower who will not and cannot be told what to do. This will lead to more violence. That’s for certain. But, hey, what are you going to do? Let some camel jockey with a Koran tell America what’s up? That’s not going to happen for reasons that should be obvious. No one bosses the USA around, not even the people who own oil fields, and certainly not some radicalized jihadi with a pressure cooker and a bucket of nails.Plus, you know what happens when you give in to terrorists, when you negotiate with them, or capitulate to their demands: they’re never satisfied. Even if we agreed to help them wipe Israel off the map and establish a thriving Palestinian state, they still wouldn’t be happy. That’s the way these terrorists are: constantly unhappy and dissatisfied. Nothing cheers them, except when Americans suffer.

So they want something. We’re not about to give it to them. They’re going to terrorize us with homemade explosives and suicide pilots and what have you. We will punish the bad guys, perhaps even torture them. But others will take their place, continuing with the unreasonable hatred of our policies, which will lead them to additional acts of terrorism. Which will accomplish nothing, because you don’t negotiate with a terrorist, particularly when there’s nothing to discuss.

Since we’re not about to change our policies – at least not in reaction to terrorist attacks – we have two choices: 1) accept regular and devastating terrorist attacks against Americans, or, 2) kill all the terrorists before they can kill us.

What’s it going to be? The value-conscious will point out that our nuclear warheads are already bought and paid for; we might as well use them before some treaty outlaws them. The pragmatic will point out that the TSA and other branches of Homeland Security (but particularly the highly professional screeners at the airport) have done a stellar job of protecting us from harm. The optimistic will point out that once-a-superpower doesn’t necessarily mean “never-again-a-superpower.” We can do it!

Or – and this is admittedly absurd, almost comical – we could reexamine our policies.

We’re betting on more violence.