Seumas Milne, Guardian Associate Editor, is the former contributor to the decidedly pro-Stalinist Communist Party publication, Straight Left, who still possesses a soft spot for communist mass murderers, as well as Islamist terrorists (“resistance”) in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Israel.
Milne just penned a furious apologia for his zealous, and supremely callous, essay posted on September 13, 2001 – two days after Al Qaeda terrorists murdered 3000 innocent Americans, and rescue efforts were still underway for possible survivors under the rubble of the collapsed Twin Towers.
With the tenth anniversary of the attacks approaching, Milne’s latest essay, 9/11: ‘A babble of idiots’? History has been the judge of that, Sept. 6, attempts to take a moral victory lap by claiming his much maligned 2001 essay has been vindicated.
Milne writes:
“As the Guardian’s comment editor at the time, my column in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 was a particular target of hostility, especially among those who insisted the attacks had nothing to do with US intervention, or its support for occupation and dictatorship, in the Arab and Muslim world. Others felt it was too early to speak about such things when Americans had suffered horrific losses.”
However, upon reading Milne’s 2001 essay, one thing is certain. Whatever criticism Milne received couldn’t possibly have done justice to how morally atrocious his take on the 9/11 attacks were.
Writes Milne in his 2001 essay, identifying the true villains of the 9/11 attacks:
“…any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process – or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries…seems almost entirely absent. Perhaps it is too much to hope that…a small minority might make the connection between what has been visited upon them and what their government has visited upon large parts of the world.”
Milne further cites as fuel for the attacks by Al Qaeda:
“[America’s] murderous embargos against recalcitrant regimes.”
And, then, to Milne, additional blame on the U.S. is owed to:
“[America] recklessly throwing its weight behind Israel’s 34-year illegal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the Palestinian intifada rages.”
Adds Milne:
“If it turns out that Tuesday’s attacks were the work of Osama bin Laden’s supporters, the sense that the Americans are once again reaping a dragons’ teeth harvest they themselves sowed will be overwhelming.”
Finally, Milne concludes:
“Already, the Bush administration is assembling an international coalition for an Israeli-style war against terrorism, as if such counter-productive acts of outrage had an existence separate from the social conditions out of which they arise. [emphasis mine]”
For Milne, the savage attacks against thousands of innocent Americans, as with similar murderous attacks by Palestinian terrorists against innocent Jews, are not morally indefensible outrages, but merely “counter-productive”, but understandable, reactions to “social conditions for which they arise.”
The 9/11 attacks, for Milne, represented America’s chickens coming home to roost – an understandable comeuppance for the nation’s horrific crimes against the world’s poor and oppressed.
Of course, evidently lost on Milne – information which his Marxist dialectic fails to provide – is that Al-Qaeda ideology represents nothing even resembling liberalism, pluralism, or anti-colonialism.
Al Qaeda calls on its supporters to engage in Jihad, resistance and revenge against America and her allies, seeks a “World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders,” and calls for the creation of a new Islamic world-wide theocratic caliphate which would ban “immoral acts” such as homosexuality.
Al Qaeda represents the zenith of dangerous religious extremism, and a reactionary (Colonialist) call to arms which views the killing of bystanders and civilians as a religiously justified component of jihad.
Milne differs with Al Qaeda.
He views such murdered civilians as unfortunate casualties in an overall just, anti-imperialist, anti-American, anti-Zionist crusade.
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COMMITTEE FOR ACCURACY IN MIDDLE EAST REPORTING AND ANALYSIS
Babble of an extremist: Seumas Milne defends his post 9/11 essay which blamed attacks on US actions & support for Israel
Milne just penned a furious apologia for his zealous, and supremely callous, essay posted on September 13, 2001 – two days after Al Qaeda terrorists murdered 3000 innocent Americans, and rescue efforts were still underway for possible survivors under the rubble of the collapsed Twin Towers.
With the tenth anniversary of the attacks approaching, Milne’s latest essay, 9/11: ‘A babble of idiots’? History has been the judge of that, Sept. 6, attempts to take a moral victory lap by claiming his much maligned 2001 essay has been vindicated.
Milne writes:
However, upon reading Milne’s 2001 essay, one thing is certain. Whatever criticism Milne received couldn’t possibly have done justice to how morally atrocious his take on the 9/11 attacks were.
Writes Milne in his 2001 essay, identifying the true villains of the 9/11 attacks:
Milne further cites as fuel for the attacks by Al Qaeda:
And, then, to Milne, additional blame on the U.S. is owed to:
Adds Milne:
Finally, Milne concludes:
For Milne, the savage attacks against thousands of innocent Americans, as with similar murderous attacks by Palestinian terrorists against innocent Jews, are not morally indefensible outrages, but merely “counter-productive”, but understandable, reactions to “social conditions for which they arise.”
The 9/11 attacks, for Milne, represented America’s chickens coming home to roost – an understandable comeuppance for the nation’s horrific crimes against the world’s poor and oppressed.
Of course, evidently lost on Milne – information which his Marxist dialectic fails to provide – is that Al-Qaeda ideology represents nothing even resembling liberalism, pluralism, or anti-colonialism.
Al Qaeda calls on its supporters to engage in Jihad, resistance and revenge against America and her allies, seeks a “World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders,” and calls for the creation of a new Islamic world-wide theocratic caliphate which would ban “immoral acts” such as homosexuality.
Al Qaeda represents the zenith of dangerous religious extremism, and a reactionary (Colonialist) call to arms which views the killing of bystanders and civilians as a religiously justified component of jihad.
Milne differs with Al Qaeda.
He views such murdered civilians as unfortunate casualties in an overall just, anti-imperialist, anti-American, anti-Zionist crusade.
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