If you remember 9/11, you remember the anguished cries of bewilderment: Why do they hate us?
Not just the killers from that day: we all understood them to be madmen, and so they were, and so are those who sent them. Mass murder is an act of madness, and of barbarism.
But what of those who cheered them on, who expressed satisfaction at what happened to America that day? Why do they hate us?
Implicit in the question was an element of narcissism: that Americans were unquestionably Good, and Decent, and Fair, and should therefore be universally loved. America could not have done anything that would inspire hate.
So our civic and cultural leaders gave us answers that played to that narcissism -- they hate us for our freedom (heck yeah! America, land of the free!), and they hate us because we're prosperous and powerful (damn straight! Rich and strong, that's us!). Some of those leaders, the darker ones, gave answers intended to divide us -- they hate us because of the moral corruption of the ACLU and People for the American Way.
But for the most part, we comforted ourselves with the belief that we had done nothing to provoke any hatred at all.
Then came Shock and Awe.
There was Ali Ismaeel Abbas, a 12-year-old boy whose family was killed in one of the first bombing raids. Arms burned to cinders, and later amputated, he was one of the first Iraqi children maimed by the war to be seen by Americans ... who got his name wrong, at first. And again, the narcissism, from the wide-eyed idiot "reporter" Kyra Phillips:
PHILLIPS: Doctor -- what has he been saying to you, Doctor? Is he asking anything of you? Is he thanking you? Is he wanting to know about family? Tell us what this little boy has been saying to you.
AL-NAJADA: Actually, today he was in good condition after the operation and started speaking with a journalist and answering all their questions. The thing which he was -- they asking about -- the journalists, especially the broadcasting, what the message he wants to reflect from the war. He said, first of all, thank you for the attention they're giving to him, but he hopes nobody from the children in the war they will suffer like what he suffer.
PHILLIPS: Does he understand why...
AL-NAJADA: Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Doctor, does he understand why this war took place? Has he talked about Operation Iraqi Freedom and the meaning? Does he understand it?
AL-NAJADA: Actually, we don't discuss this issue with him because he is -- the burn cases, and the type of injury, he's in very bad psychological trauma ...
Why do they hate us? Perhaps they hate us for asking such stupid questions. Is he thanking you? Has he talked about Operation Iraqi Freedom and the meaning?
Do they hate us because the Americans they see on their televisions want to know whether a maimed orphan shows gratitude for his medical care and appreciates why he had to be crippled?
***
And, of course, there was Abu Ghraib. Some of us tried to excuse what happened there, called it just blowing off steam, but the images couldn't be ignored. So we court-martialed a few enlisted reservists, who would never have been punished if there were no digital cameras in Iraq, and told ourselves it was just a few bad apples who did that, not emblematic of anything American.
But then we returned to the White House the man whose Department of Justice was busily churning out rationales that could excuse everything that happened at Abu Ghraib. And the man who said that in America, our leaders can even torture children, if they feel like it, went on to teach our next generation of leaders as professor at one of our most prestigious law colleges.
Why do they hate us? Perhaps because they fear us.
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And now, the Mahmoudiya massacre. It happened two years ago: a 14-year-old girl named Abeer Qasim Hamza, stalked and then assaulted, pinned down and raped by American soldiers, who slaughtered her family, split her skull, and then set her on fire. A date with destiny was set for the alleged mastermind of that atrocity, former soldier Stephen D. Green, scheduled to go on trial in Paducah, Kentucky.
But as it turns out, there's something more important going on that day -- something so important that the quest for justice for Abeer Qasim Hamza and her murdered family must be delayed. The trial will just have to take its turn; first things first.
And first, we have to have a quilt show.
No, I am not making that up. The trial is being delayed for the American Quilter's Society Quilt Show.
Here's the show's executive director, commenting in her blog:
Who would ever think that a quilt show would postpone a murder trial? That is just what happened in Paducah this week. An ex-soldier accused of raping a 14-year old girl and murdering her and her family in Iraq was postponed two weeks because there are not enough hotel rooms available for the trial participants. The trial, previously scheduled to begin April 13, will now begin April 27, after the quilt show closes.
I guess the world outside of quilting is now learning what a big show the AQS Quilt Show really is!
Not at all. The world outside will not see this as proof that quilting is important; they will see it as proof that -- to Americans -- the rape and murder of a foreign child and her family is less important.
And perhaps there is the final, best answer to the question why do they hate us? It's not because of our freedom; and it's not just our power, or our money, or our culture that inspire rage and anger.
It's our priorities.
They hate us because they see that to us, they don't matter.