Garbled on Replay
By SEAN HANNON

November 30, 2003

When people disagree with my perspective of events, I invite them to challenge my assertions with reasoned arguments of their own, buttressed by factual evidence. I welcome this type of response as part of a meaningful debate. What I don’t appreciate is having my arguments misrepresented and garbled on replay with the effect, if not the intentional effort, of maligning me personally. 

To imply that I believe that our family, friends and neighbors deserved to die on 9/11 is a despicable insinuation. None of them deserved to die such a horrible death. To think that way is to be in league with the terrorists and beyond redemption. I never thought it, I never said it, and I never implied it.

I am confidant that most readers understood the true message and import of my letter. I am not an apologist for terrorist criminals. When they cross the line that separates men from monsters, I believe that they should be hunted down. This was stated clearly in my letter.

Do I think that America caused 9/11? No, not if you mean “responsible for”. Radical muslim extremists caused 9/11. They chose the unthinkable and it is they alone who are responsible for their heinous acts. But do I think that America’s actions on the world stage have some bearing on the rising tide of terrorism? Yes I do. And I said (to recap my actual conclusion) that when we do harm in the world that compels ordinarily decent people to become sympathetic toward terrorist organizations, an honest examination of that is not unreasonable or outrageous. It is our duty.

I would invite anyone confused as to my intent to reread my last letter and to consider the following statement as they do: "He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression." -- Thomas Paine