Friday, June 24, 2005
Clinton 9/11 Reaction Proves Rove Right
Democrats are livid over Karl Rove's complaint that liberals reacted to the 9/11 attacks by urging "understanding" for terrorists.
But that was exactly the advice offered by ex-President Clinton, delivered in an address to Georgetown University less than two months after the attacks.
"First of all, terror, the killing of noncombatants for economic, political, or religious reasons has a very long history - as long as organized combat itself," Clinton lectured. "Those of us who come from various European lineages are not blameless."
Then the ex-president catalogued the terrorist abuses perpetrated by Europeans and Americans on Jews, Muslims and people of color.
"Indeed, in the first Crusade, when the Christian soldiers took Jerusalem, they first burned a synagogue with 300 Jews in it, and proceeded to kill every woman and child who was Muslim on the Temple mound," he noted.
"Here in the United States, we were founded as a nation that practiced slavery and slaves were, quite frequently, killed even though they were innocent."
The U.S. "looked the other way," Clinton charged, "when significant numbers of Native Americans were dispossessed and killed to get their land or their mineral rights or because they were thought of as less than fully human and we are still paying the price today."
By the time Mr. Clinton was done with his terrorism history lesson, it was clear America got what it deserved on 9/11.
Democrats are livid over Karl Rove's complaint that liberals reacted to the 9/11 attacks by urging "understanding" for terrorists.
But that was exactly the advice offered by ex-President Clinton, delivered in an address to Georgetown University less than two months after the attacks.
"First of all, terror, the killing of noncombatants for economic, political, or religious reasons has a very long history - as long as organized combat itself," Clinton lectured. "Those of us who come from various European lineages are not blameless."
Then the ex-president catalogued the terrorist abuses perpetrated by Europeans and Americans on Jews, Muslims and people of color.
"Indeed, in the first Crusade, when the Christian soldiers took Jerusalem, they first burned a synagogue with 300 Jews in it, and proceeded to kill every woman and child who was Muslim on the Temple mound," he noted.
"Here in the United States, we were founded as a nation that practiced slavery and slaves were, quite frequently, killed even though they were innocent."
The U.S. "looked the other way," Clinton charged, "when significant numbers of Native Americans were dispossessed and killed to get their land or their mineral rights or because they were thought of as less than fully human and we are still paying the price today."
By the time Mr. Clinton was done with his terrorism history lesson, it was clear America got what it deserved on 9/11.
