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Another response to Terrorism: "Good" vs. "Evil":
Released: September 12, 2001
Fifty Years of Appeasement Led to Black Tuesday
By Leonard Peikoff
Fifty years of increasing American appeasement in the Mideast have led to fifty years of increasing contempt in the Muslim world for the U.S. The inevitable climax was the tens of thousands of deaths on September 11, 2001 — the blackest day in our history, so far. The Palestinians, among others, responded by dancing in the streets and handing out candy.
Fifty years ago, Truman and Eisenhower ceded to the Arabs the West's property rights in oil — although that oil properly belonged to those in the West whose science and technology made its discovery and use possible.
This capitulation was not practical, but philosophical. The Arab dictators were denouncing the wealthy egoistic West. They were crying that the masses of their poor needed our sacrifice; that oil, like all property, is owned collectively, by virtue of birth; and that they knew all this by means of ineffable or otherworldly emotion. Our Presidents had no answer. Implicitly, they were ashamed of the Declaration of Independence. They did not dare to answer aloud that Americans, rightfully, were motivated by the selfish desire to pursue personal happiness in a rich, secular, individualist society.
The Arabs embodied in extreme form every idea — selfless duty, anti-materialism, faith or feeling above science, the supremacy of the group — which our universities and churches, and our own political Establishment, had long been preaching as the essence of virtue. When two groups, our leadership and theirs, accept the same basic ideas, the most consistent wins.
After property came liberty. The Iranian dictator Khomeini threatened with death a British author — and with destruction his American publisher — if they exercised their right to free speech. He explained that the book in question offended the religion of his people. The Bush Administration looked the other way.
After liberty came American life itself — as in Iran's support of the massacre of our soldiers in Saudi Arabia, and the Afghanistan-based assault on our embassies in East Africa. Again, the American response was unbridled appeasement: a Realpolitikisch desire not to "jeopardize relations" with the aggressor country, covered up by a purely rhetorical vow to punish the guilty, along with an occasional pretend bombing. By now, the world knows that we are indeed a paper tiger.
We have not only appeased terrorists, we have actively created them. The Reagan Administration — holding that Islamic fundamentalists were our ideological allies in the fight against the atheistic Soviets — poured money and expertise into Afghanistan to create an ever-growing band of terrorists recruited from all over the Mideast. Most of these terrorists knew what to do with their American training; their goal was not to save Afghanistan.
The final guarantee of American impotence is the bipartisan proclamation that a terrorist is an individual alone responsible for his actions, and that "we must try each before a court of law." This is tantamount, while under a Nazi aerial bombardment, to seeking out and trying the pilots involved while ignoring Hitler and Germany.
Terrorists exist only through the sanction and support of the governments behind them. Their lethal behavior is that of the regimes that make them possible. Their killings are not crimes, but acts of war. The only proper response to such acts is war in self-defense.
We do not need more evidence to "pinpoint" the perpetrators of any one of these atrocities, including the latest and most egregious — we already have total certainty with regard to the governments primarily responsible for the repeated slaughter of Americans in recent years. We must now use our unsurpassed military to destroy all branches of the Iranian and Afghani governments, regardless of the suffering and death this will bring to the many innocents caught in the line of fire. We must wipe out the terrorist training camps or sanctuaries, and eliminate any retaliatory military capability — and thereby terrorize and paralyze all the tyrannies watching, who will now know what is in store for them if they choose in any form to attack the U.S. That will be the end of the terrorists.
Our missiles and occupation troops, however, will be effective only if they are preceded by our President's morally righteous statement that we intend hereafter to defend by every means possible each American's right to his property, his liberty, and his secure enjoyment of life here on earth.
To those who oppose war, I ask: If not now, when? How many more corpses are necessary before this country should take action?
The choice today is mass death in the United States or mass death in the terrorist nations. President Bush must decide whether it is his duty to save Americans or the governments who seek to kill them.
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Leonard Peikoff is the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute in Marina del Rey, California. The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Rob's reply
>> We have not only appeased terrorists, we have actively created them. The Reagan Administration — holding that Islamic fundamentalists were our ideological allies in the fight against the atheistic Soviets — poured money and expertise into Afghanistan to create an ever-growing band of terrorists recruited from all over the Mideast. <<
Peikoff got the problem right...
>> We must now use our unsurpassed military to destroy all branches of the Iranian and Afghani governments, regardless of the suffering and death this will bring to the many innocents caught in the line of fire. <<
..but not the solution.
Luckily, an all-out response will never happen. It's questionable whether we'll even capture or kill Bin Laden before giving up our ill-conceived "war." The only question is how many body bags it'll take before America loses its stomach for killing innocent people and seeing blameless soldiers killed in turn.
>> We must wipe out the terrorist training camps or sanctuaries, and eliminate any retaliatory military capability — and thereby terrorize and paralyze all the tyrannies watching, who will now know what is in store for them if they choose in any form to attack the U.S. <<
And Peikoff found this solution where...in a cave painting? Talk about your stupid, mindless, thuggish responses. What is he...some sort of dumb animal?
>> Our missiles and occupation troops, however, will be effective only if they are preceded by our President's morally righteous statement that we intend hereafter to defend by every means possible each American's right to his property, his liberty, and his secure enjoyment of life here on earth. <<
Bush* has said enough words to that effect. They've rung hollow every time. Which is probably why he backed off his most extreme formulations: "crusade," "Infinite Justice," etc.
>> To those who oppose war, I ask: If not now, when? <<
Now is fine. The question is how, not when.
>> How many more corpses are necessary before this country should take action? <<
Apparently, Peikoff thinks "war" is synonymous with "action" and "peace" is the opposite of "action." A brief look at dozens of historical events—for instance, the demonstrations against the Vietnam War—will show that "peace" and "action" are completely compatible.
>> The choice today is mass death in the United States or mass death in the terrorist nations. <<
No, that isn't the choice. No masses in the US died before Bush went to war. No masses in the US have died since Bush went to war. The 9/11 terrorist attacks took years to plan. Whether we corral the terrorists or not, we're unlikely to see another attack of that magnitude for a similar period of years.
But you've gotta love Peikoff for his extremist positions. Although he's too chicken to say so, he apparently thought the US should go to war with Iran over the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. He admits the Reagan administration created Bin Laden's terrorists, but thinks the solution is wipe the terrorists off the map.
Hello? The solution to US-created terrorists is for the US not to create terrorists anymore. Destroying today's terrorists won't do a thing if we create more terrorists tomorrow.
In fact, Piekoff makes the conundrum explicit:
Terrorists exist only through the sanction and support of the governments behind them. Their lethal behavior is that of the regimes that make them possible.
As Peikoff wrote above, the US made Bin Laden possible. Therefore, the US is responsible. The US must destroy itself.
>> President Bush must decide whether it is his duty to save Americans or the governments who seek to kill them. <<
Americans must decide whether they'll follow Bush* blindly or reject his singleminded John Wayne approach.
>> Leonard Peikoff is the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute in Marina del Rey, California. The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. <<
What a shocker. A libertarian who eschews rational thought and goes for the emotional jugular. Who eschews complex solutions and boils the world down into black and white. "Government bad, markets good. Terrorists bad, killing terrorists good."
And yet, even as Peikoff blames the US government for appeasing terrorists, he calls for a massive government onslaught against other countries to solve the problem. I guess only Americans have the "right" to be free from government interference. Iranian and Afghan citizens can drop dead because they aren't Americans and don't follow the Good Book (i.e., Atlas Shrugged).
I'll bet this clown called for "necessary" security measures to limit our rights and "protect our freedom," too. What stupid hypocrisy—the hallmark of a true libertarian.
I think I read something similar in a Dr. Seuss book. I'd compare the libertarian "thought process" to a kindergartner's, but even a kindergartner understands more about the real world than a libertarian seems to. Next time a libertarian claims to be "rational," I hope I won't bust a gut from laughing hysterically.
I'm not using hyperbole here. I'm completely serious about the shallowness of this argument. Read some of the essays written by grade-school children after the attacks. They literally offered more intelligent, insightful solutions than "we die or they die."
Rob
*Not the legitimate president.
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