For some reason today I was thinking of the President’s oft-repeated assertion that “Terrorists hate freedom,” and It was kind of sticking in my craw. The idea just doesn’t make sense to me for lots of reasons, yet the phrase is so appealingly simple that it seems to have embedded itself into the consciousness of politicians and pundits alike, and to have passed by almost without scrutiny.

Here’s one problem I have with the “Terrorists hate freedom” meme: If terrorists hate freedom and terrorists attack America because we have freedom, then the only way to keep America safe would be to either kill all terrorists or eliminate America’s freedom. The first solution doesn’t seem possible, and the second doesn’t seem palatable (though, I could be wrong).

And why would terrorists hate freedom, anyway? What would be the threat to terrorists if freedom were to come to their country? I guess I could understand if a totalitarian state were to be taking arms against us, but for a seemingly rootless and country-less agglomeration of bad actors to declare war on the mere existence of American freedom… that’s an argument that I just can’t follow.

The dangers of accepting the canard are twofold: first, if terrorists hate freedom and America = freedom, then there’s really nothing we can do on our side to stop the terrorists from hating us. They just hate us for who we are and cannot be reasoned with so only the most draconian law enforcement tactics will suffice to keep those crafty terrorists from hurting more Americans.

Secondly, if we accept that terrorists hate freedom, but what terrorists actually hate is, say, our policies, then we will be making America less safe by failing to address the root causes of terror. It’s like pumping air into the tires on your car when you’ve run out of gas… it ain’t gonna work, folks.

Recent events suggest that the Justice Department, Homeland Security, Congress, and law enforcement officials seem to depend on the “terrorists hate freedom” justification to promote and enact evermore infringing attacks on the rights of US citizens. Innocent American citizens are placed on Homeland Security watchlists and subjected to harassment for taking pictures in a public place. Prisoners are held in extra-legal no-mans-lands, without right of due process. Psychological and physical torture of innocents is justified in secret memos. These acts don’t seem to match up with a government concerned with promoting freedom.

Terrorists hate something. It seems likely to me that what they hate is American power and the particular way we project it in the world. It doesn’t seem likely to me that terrorists hate freedom, nor does it seem likely that such a simple-minded analysis adds anything to solving the problem of keeping America safe.

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Friday, July 9th, 2004 @ 1:15 pm Freedom Matters, Politics Matters
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