Curt over at Flopping Aces has a detailed look at the 9/11 Memorial built by the State of Arizona that illustrates what the far left International Freedom Center would have done with the memorial at Ground Zero.
You will recall that the original proposal for the Memorial included a 300,00 square foot exhibit of “the history of freedom” that would have included all sorts of extraneous left wing baggage about America’s sins of omission and commission over the years. Not to mention that the Board of the IFC was made up of some of the most unbalanced Bush haters in America. The actual Ground Zero Memorial would have taken up around 50,000 square feet and would have been buried underground.
What is fascinating about the Arizona 9/11 Memorial is that it goes to the heart of what the left actually thinks about that seminal day in American history. It isn’t a question of 9/11 being a tragedy – every American believes that. But as we saw with the liberal’s reaction to The Path to 9/11, The Narrative of that day must, by necessity, give short shrift to the role of Osama Bin Laden and the hijackers and concentrate instead on supposed American policies that led to the attacks.
In this way, blame can be easily shifted to America herself. And by highlighting America’s sins at the expense of the sins of the hijackers or even the courage and bravery of our citizens on 9/11, it also validates every leftist critique of American policy since the end of World War II. Viet Nam, our Latin American policies, the Cold War – the left’s historical narrative (skewed and twisted out of all proportion and reason) stands as a stark reminder that hijacking history in this manner is almost as great a sin as hijacking airplanes and flying them into buildings. In short, they are murdering the innocents and their memories all over again.
Get a load of some of things that the “memorial” wants us to “remember” about 9/11:
- “Erroneous US air strike kills 46 Uruzgan civilians (7/1/02)”
- “Congress questions why CIA & FBI didn’t prevent attacks.” (6/3/02)
- “Violent Acts Leading US to War”
Some see a crescent (representing Islam) when looking at the design of the memorial, although I think that may be reading too much into it. The problem with the Arizona memorial as with the now defunct plan for the memorial at Ground Zero is very simple:
Why can’t we just design and build a loving and powerful remembrance of what happened on September 11, 2001 only? Why is it necessary to include events and history that has absolutely nothing to do with what happened on that horrific day?
An inkling can be found in this Arizona history teacher’s anger at the whole idea of a 9/11 memorial in the first place:
In his fiery e-mail, Johnsen wrote: “What happened on September 11th was indeed tragic. Other adjectives would apply as well: unethical, immoral, shameful, needless, heartbreaking, unacceptable, etc. In my view, however, what it was not was a ’senseless’ tragedy … any more than it was ‘unthinkable’ … To me both terms suggest just a tad too much that there was simply no conceivable reason for 9/11 to have happened.â€
He later writes: “It seems to me that attacking Americans through terrorism is making sense to more and more people. That’s scary. However twisted the logic may be that would bring people to commit and/or sanction such indiscriminate violence, it would be illogical to deny that it happens in response to something.â€
[…]Johnsen closes his e-mail by suggesting the school “resist the Pavlovian nationalist platitudes for a change, and instead transcend our shock, grief and anger†into examining what part, “if any, U.S. policies play in breeding such hate and violence against us†and “begin engaging in democratic dialogue and coalition-building.â€
No, I’m not making this moonbat a spokesman for the entire left. His extremist views would undoubtedly be rejected by many liberals. But his shifting of blame for the attacks from those who perpetrated the obscenity to America is telling indeed. For this is part and parcel of what the leftist members of the IFC had in mind with their “Freedom Center” being placed on the sacred ground of the collapsed towers.
Not content with simply honoring our dead and commemorating the survivors while telling the story of who carried out the attacks and the nature of that enemy, the left by definition must include “context” in any re-telling of the 9/11 story. That “context” would validate their post-9/11 political critiques of the Bush Administration as well as legitimize their ideological and historical criticisms of America herself.
As it stands now, the Freedom Center will be several blocks removed from Ground Zero as it should be. And the Memorial? As with the entire site, the project is hopelessly bogged down thanks to political squabbles and a curious inertia that seems to have gripped everyone involved. Five years after the attacks, New York politicians can’t seem to get their act together. And it’s long past time that they do.
11:03 am
If we changed our foreign policy to be more acceptable to the Muslim world, we would just be pissing-off a wholy different group of people. When you are the most powerful and most prosperous nation in the world, most of the world outside your borders (and a significant minority inside) will resent you and blame you for their lack of prosperity no matter what you do.
If you can answer this question correctly, you “get it”: Why do so many baseball fans outside of New York hate the Yankees?
3:26 pm
“If you can answer this question correctly, you “get itâ€: Why do so many baseball fans outside of New York hate the Yankees?”
Answer: Arrogance, sir, arrogance.
4:36 pm
I saw all the pictures of sistertoldjah and could not believe it. Thanks govenor napolitano, what a loon you are to have this in Arizona, what an insult to the innocent dead.
6:40 pm
Ed
The Yankees are no more or less arrogant than any other successful group of professional baseball players, however, of late and through out their history they have been more successful than any other team in baseball. This is why many fans outside of New York don’t like them. The real reason fans outside of New York tend to dislike them is because of their success. Often times this comes at the expense of their beloved team. With all due respect, Yankee arrogance is a myth to make them feel better.
The same goes for American “arrogance.” This is a lie. If a lie is repeated often enough and loud enough people begin to believe it. After all, I’m not arrogant. My neighbor must be. I met my neighbor and he/she is not arrogant. Then their neighbor MUST be. After the msm told me so. My college professors told me so.
Actually Americans including their leaders are on the whole quite humble. Of course this will vary by individuals. There will be some among the leadership who fit the definition of arrogant and some who don’t.
Much of the rhetoric we have heard lately coming from America’s leaders is simply a response to the rhetoric coming from their enemies. The msm reporting on this is spotty. This is either becuase: A.)While not actively supporting foriegn leaders, such as the Iranian, Venezuelean, and Russian leaders they harbor sympathy toward their positions. B.) Getting the quotes from foreign leaders is more difficult and, as such, their is not as large a press detail assigned to them and because of this those quotes are often missed. I think B probably explains things better than A. In any event, what an American leader says or does needs to be evaluated in the context of what others are doing.
On the whole, Americans and their leaders are quite humble. Author and blogger Dan Flynn said it best when he said,to roughly paraphrase, the America haters should “play imitate rather than play hate.” America and its leaders are no more arrogant and probably less arrogant than the other great powers of Russia, Chnia, or Iran.
A combination of overwhelming American economic success and some foreign policy miscalculations that happened becuase Aemrican leaders do not properly understand their enemies have led to the current situation. The sooner the myth of American “arrogance” is shown for the myth that it is the better. Once the myths or debunked, we can better address the issues we face.
12:25 am
When it comes to arrogance, it’s hard to beat holding the belief that God finds you qualified to determine who is unworthy of life, and slaughter them at your whim.
1:43 am
Nell
You write: “When it comes to arrogance, it’s hard to to beat holding the belief that God finds you qualified to determine who is unworthy of life and slaughter them at will.” This describes Iranian leader Mahmood Amadinejad. He thinks it is his duty to bring about world Islamic rule and to completely destroy two civilizations, America and Israel. He has the full backing of Iran’s religous leaders with nothing to hold them accountable. The reporting by the msm on the Iranian leadership’s religous motivations is generally spotty, however, I think you were referring to George W. Bush.
George W. Bush has Congress, the Courts, and the American people to hold him accountable. The Iranian leadership has no such check on its power. I think they have “elections” but the religous leaders decide who will be on the ballot and what policies they will follow.
Bush may have been rumored to make certain claims regarding God but he has the American the people, the courts, and Congress to hold him in check. There is no such check on the Iranian leadership.
Btw, the US nor George W. Bush are slaughtering anyone at their whim. If anything, the American military response has been indecisive. This has been part of the problem from the beginning. The military has not been allowed to fight decisively. The terrorists, in the name of their God, however, are slaughtering people at whim. Your statement describes America’s terrorists enemies perfectly.
10:06 am
ed,
Wong. You don’t get it.
B. Poster, Nell,
Bingo!
11:19 am
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