One of the main points being made by conservatives regarding a civilian trial for the 9/11 terrorists is that it will provide Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and company a worldwide platform for denigrating America as part of their defense strategy.
A hot flash for my fellow conservatives: having America internationally debased may be precisely what our president and his like-minded followers want.
Many times I have made the point that there are two types of Americans: in one group are those who add up all the plusses and minuses of our country's history and conclude that we are the greatest nation on earth, warts and all. In the other, those who believe the same calculations reveal a nation which is fundamentally flawed, and in need of a massive re-ordering which only they can provide.
The second group also believes we owe the entire world an apology for our historically wayward behavior.
For a very long time, the second group, aka American left, has been infatuated with the idea of Americans getting their comeuppance for having the gall to believe our culture, traditions and customs have made us the best nation on earth. The essence of their argument is simple: because we are not perfect, we have no business being proud of being good, nor any reason whatsoever to conclude that our ways are superior to those of any other nation or culture. For them, Ronald Reagan's characterization of America as a "shining city on a hill" is nothing more than collective braggadocio.
Such a clear cut assessment of America also rankles leftists because they are heavily invested in the idea that all things are relative, which is why our president, when asked if he believed in American exceptionalism said, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." Perhaps it never occurred to the president that if everyone is exceptional, then no one is.
Or perhaps it did.
The American left has long yearned to see the Founding Fathers — and their overwhelmingly Judeo-Christian approach to governance — thoroughly discredited. Part of it stems from their decades-long infatuation with secularism, as epitomized by candidate-Obama's San Francisco characterization of disgruntled Americans "clinging" to guns and religion, a statement which reveals one of the prevailing characteristics of leftist elitism: religion per se is anti-intellectual. This attitude dovetails nicely with their general contempt for the intelligence of average Americans, who they believe must be taken care of by their betters.
Another part of it stems from a similar infatuation with diversity: many leftists can't stand the idea that the wisdom of a largely homogenous group of people — "dead, slave-owning, white, European males" is responsible for one of the finest series of governmental philosophies ever devised.
Thus, everything leftist Democrats in Congress and this administration are attempting to foist on the American people — Constitutional rights for stateless, non-uniformed terrorists, government-run healthcare, cap-and-trade, nationalizing banks, regulating salaries, etc. etc. — is the rejection of a status quo they consider too white, too religious, too capitalistic, too self-reliant, too free, and too...American. These are the same people who believe the disastrous historical track record of both socialism and communism is attributable solely to the fact that the "wrong people were in charge." And until America "comes to its senses" and adopts that which is a demonstrable failure only because of incompetent leadership, we must be pilloried for our "irredeemable"
embrace of freedom and capitalism.
And who would make a perfect pitchman for delivering that message to the entire world?
Enter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Attorney General Eric Holder has promised us the prosecution of the alleged 9/11 mastermind will be the "trial of the century." No doubt. For those who can't — or won't — recognize the extermination of 3000 Americans on 9/11 as an act of war, or that Islamic jihadism is inherently evil and inferior to our way of life, this spectacle will be a global celebration of rabid, anti Americanism — one that will delight jihadists and "chickens coming home to roost" leftists in equal measure.
Some conservatives are "consoling" themselves with the idea that the real motive here is putting the former administration, most specifically George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, on trial. That is naive. America itself is in the cross hairs here: the religious right, flyover country, the military, the CIA, capitalism and every other institution and concept leftists hold in contempt.
New York City once again a bulls-eye? There's an old saying, "bad things come in threes." The bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 — and the subsequent civilian trials — was number one. 9/11 was number two.
Number three? Let's hope old sayings aren't invariably accurate.
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