This Why They Hate Us Pavilion news is depressing stuff, but it's an inescapable fact that many Americans think of their country as a very guilty if not evil place:

On my grave, please do not build a memorial to the mistakes of my neighbors and ancestors. Don't stand on the grass above me and flagellate. Just let me lie there in peace, please.

Oh, and by the way, when you build this center, will you include the atrocities of the Saudis and Saddam Hussein and the PLO and all the tyrants of the Middle East? Will have you have an exhibit about the women there who do not have the freedom to vote or even drive?

Will you build a special wing for the special sickness that is suicide terrorism -- in Israel and in Iraq and at the World Trade Center? Or will you be afraid of offending Muslims?

Well, I'm offended.

The World Trade Center is a place for remembrance of the innocents and victims of that day and for a return to life.

: Burlingame has problems with many of the people behind the center but here is the gem:

Eric Foner, radical-left history professor at Columbia University who, even as the bodies were being pulled out of a smoldering Ground Zero, wrote, "I'm not sure which is more frightening: the horror that engulfed New York City or the apocalyptic rhetoric emanating daily from the White House." This is the same man who participated in a "teach-in" at Columbia to protest the Iraq war, during which a colleague exhorted students with, "The only true heroes are those who find ways to defeat the U.S. military," and called for "a million Mogadishus."

(Via Glenn Reynolds.)

If you follow this logic for a moment, it's tantamount to an inverse of the "hate crime" shtick logic. Normally (according to advocates of hate crime laws) when hatred is a reason for a crime, that makes the crime far more heinous, and in such cases the penalties should be greatly increased.

If I didn't know any better, I'd swear the "why do they hate us?" crowd sees the motivating hatred as a mitigating factor.

And if the hatred for America isn't enough, many of them are all to glad to supply additional justifications for the hatred: hatred of the physical Towers themselves.

James Howard Kunstler (a favorite of Justin, BTW), while being a little too slick to actually blame America per se (or say that the country deserved to be attacked), nonetheless makes it abundantly clear that the Towers never should have been there in the first place:

The United States was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. With the recent tragedies comes a sobering reassessment of America's (and the World's) infatuation with skyscrapers. We feel very strongly that the disaster should not only be blamed on the terrorist action, but that this horrible event exposes an underlying malaise with the built environment.

We are convinced that the age of skyscrapers is at an end. It must now be considered an experimental building typology that has failed. Who will ever again feel safe and comfortable working 110 storeys above the ground? Or sixty storeys? Or even twenty-seven?

A typical example is this forwarded email sent a friend who's been circulating this petition to rebuild the Twin Towers:

RE: The People For The Rebuilding of The Twin Towers

Interesting my pet.. rebuild the same towers.

I have to think about that. Being as angry at our country as I am, pride is not something that comes to mind....

[personal details omitted]
...

Think about the judges going into place that will affect us for the rest of our lives. Think about the FBI's increase of power with the Patriot act. Think about the liberties that are quickly and without massive rebellion being taken away, like medical marijuana this week, while our complacent, entertainment struck nation sits by and lets it happen. Think about how EVERYONE on this globe sees US THE US PEOPLE as the enemies of their freedom and their success on earth.

I'm not sure that rebuilding a symbol that only stands to reinforce that strength is something I care about. I think more house need to be torn down. We need a revolution - and I think the seeds have been planted.

but otherwise, :) how are you?

Because, as he says, he sees the building not as a building, but as a symbol. I see it as a building but I agree that it is also a symbol. Beyond that, the disagreement is a hopeless one. For starters, I don't plug in President Bush, the Patriot Act, or medical marijuana (or other favorite topics) to issues not related directly to them.

Lots of people do though.

The only thing the email author and I could agree on is that at least in part, the Twin Towers were attacked as a symbol. The letter writer thinks they're a symbol of Bush (and other issues) and that people "hate us." Therefore the Towers shouldn't be rebuilt.

Instead, he and others feel that a pavilion should be built indicting American injustice.

Without getting into the question of America's guilt (for America, like most countries, does not have a squeaky clean history), I do think it is fair to ask whether the place where thousands of innocent Americans lost their lives to an enemy is the right time, place and manner for a monument delivering a political scolding.

I think it is not, and I favor rebuilding the Towers. The claim that the Towers were ugly is as much a justification for 9/11 as the claim that someone's house was ugly would be a defense for an arsonist who burned it down.

I can't believe that the idea of "America the guilty" is even being seriously considered as an idea for a 9/11 pavilion. It makes almost as much sense as Ward Churchill's claim that the victims were "little Eichmanns."

As to the question, why do they hate us?

The only reason I'd care would involve considerations of strategy.

(During war, that's a stupid question to ask for any other reason.)