[Havelock]

A more civilized drink, I'll grant you. But seriously, it wasn't anybody imaginary who flew the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Al Qaeda's literature discusses American wealth and freedom (casting it negatively as decadence, of course). And as far as our actions in the Middle East go, al Qaeda's explicit original gripe is that we had troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, only a few hundred miles from Islam's holy cities. Of course, Saudi Arabia told bin Laden to fuck off when he bitched about it, revoking bin Laden's citizenship and sending him to Afghanistan. He then organized a number of attacks on the U.S. abroad and then at home. The sensible thing to do would be to get the Saudi government to uninvite us; if they're not willing to do so, the appropriate target would be the Saudi government, not the U.S., and certainly not the U.S.'s civilians.

Here's an analogy for you: say you're a black man and a white friend invites you to his party. Some of his other friends there are racist fucks who don't want you there. They beat you to death. Detective Arbitrary shows up to investigate and rules it a suicide - "The silly boy shouldn't have been at that party. He brought it on himself." [Edit: The analogy would be even more apt if they beat your wife or children to death instead.]

Admittedly, in the time leading up to the Gulf War al Qaeda became less focused on the American presence in Saudi Arabia and more focused on reestablishing the caliphate. But that doesn't do the "America brought it on themselves" crowd much good. Al Qaeda's aim expanded to setting up a theocratic dictatorship of the worst kind. To the extent that the U.S. did not go along with this - e.g., allowed separation of church and state, did not stone gays to death, let women learn to read, etc. - the U.S. was evil and al Qaeda hates us.

Predictably, al Qaeda also pointed to U.S. support of Israel as a justification for attacking; Islam should control its third holiest city, Jerusalem, because God frowns on infidels asserting sovereignty over it. Religious fanaticism isn't sufficient justification for killing thousands of civilians of a third-party country.

I can't believe that someone who celebrated Jerry Falwell's death because "he caused enough trouble" is a crusading apologist for religious fanatics who killed thousands of civilians.