Dear Michael Moore,
After reading your open letter to Juan Williams published on The Daily Beast, I thought I would write one of my own to you. While I take you as a man who prefers pictures to prose, unfortunately I am not much of a drawer so words will have to suffice.
While criticizing Williams in your letter for the comments he made about Muslims on Fox News, you find an area of agreement with the former NPR analyst over the suggestion that political correctness is obscuring an important debate on why America is under attack by extremist Muslims, even if you don’t phrase it that way.
I’m glad you’re concerned about the terrorism threat, Michael, though I should note that this seems like a new found interest considering you once preposterously (though surely level-headedly) wrote “THERE…IS…NO…TERRORIST…THREAT!” Since we are reliving your greatest hits, I feel compelled to remind whatever voyeurs are reading my not-so-private letter to you of this brilliant piece of commentary you provided during the height of the Iraq War: “The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not ‘insurgents’ or ‘terrorists’ or ‘The Enemy.’ They are the Revolution, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win.”
Let it not be said you do not take iconoclastic positions – even if they are supremely moronic.
So having stood up for those noble murderers of innocents and oppressors of women who sought to impose a cruel totalitarianism on Iraq, you now have decided in your letter to Williams to take up the cause of the attempted Time Square bomber Faisal Shahzad.
This is where, you say, political correctness has come into play. The American media, you suggest, are obscuring why Faisal Shahzad and other terrorists have attacked us. In making your point, you quote Shahzad extensively in your letter. For instance, you include this statement he gave during his recent sentencing :
“[Saladin] liberated Muslim lands … And that’s what we Muslims are trying do, because you’re occupying Iraq and Afghanistan… So, the past nine years the war with Muslims has achieved nothing for the U.S., except for it has waken up the Muslims for Islam. We are only Muslims trying to defend our people, honor, and land. But if you call us terrorists for doing that, then we are proud terrorists, and we will keep on terrorizing until you leave our land and people at peace.”
You conclude from this and other Shahzad snippets that “Terrorists aren’t trying to kill us because they hate our freedom. They’re killing us because we’re in their countries killing them.”
Of course, if one actually reads the writings of the modern theorists and adherents of offensive jihad, from the late Said Qutb to Osama Bin Laden, this is not the primary reason they give for targeting the West, at least at the most fundamental level. Sure, Bin Laden once spoke of the American presence in Saudi Arabia (hardly an occupation) and now speaks of the American presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the ultimate goal of Bin Laden and his collaborators, after liberating Muslim lands from infidels — lands that include, by the way, Spain and Israel, according to the jihadists – and overthrowing “apostate” Muslim regimes, is to create a worldwide caliphate ruled by Islamic law. Think theocratic dictatorship. They don’t just want the United States out of Iraq and Afghanistan. They want the United States out of the White House.
To know this, Michael, you don’t need to read thick books and long speeches. I surmise from your documentary work that reading is not your thing. But all you have to do is read Shahzad’s full statement at the hearing you excerpted. For instance, you leave this out:
“Therefore, the defeat of U.S. is imminent and will happen in the near future, inshallah [God Willing], which will only give rise to much awaited Muslim caliphate, which is the only true world order.”
So Shahzad’s goal – like that of al-Qaeda and other jihadi organizations – is not primarily about ending occupation. If America pulled all of its troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq tomorrow, Shahzad and al-Qaeda do not go away. Their goal – however ridiculous it seems – would still remain unaccomplished. Indeed, they feel religiously obliged to bring the whole world under the control of an Islamic caliphate.
When Shahzid said, during his same statement, that he seeks to “mak[e] the word of Allah supreme over any religion or system,” it was a total statement that went beyond any grievance of occupation. And in case you need help with interpretation, Michael, Shahzid isn’t suggesting he and his cohorts politely convince people to submit to their worldwide caliphate.
For Pete’s sake, Michael, why do you always take the most radical interpretations of American actions abroad as truth? Al-Qaeda propagandizes that America is in the Middle East (and in the case of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the greater Middle East or South Asia) to rape and pillage — and that somehow makes sense to you. You seem to believe that what’s wrong with the Middle East is all the fault of America. Take America (and Israel) out, and the Middle East is a paradise.
That, of course, is utter nonsense. Agree or disagree with American actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, any intellectually honest person would have to concede that the default reality would have been — if those wars never happened — a sadistic madman in control of Iraq and an indescribably cruel, religious theocracy that drops walls on homosexuals and brutally oppresses women in control of Afghanistan. You and others can make the case that we should not be involved in those countries, Michael, but let us not pretend it is Disneyland in the Middle East if America has no presence. (I use the term “intellectually honest,” though I am aware the words “intellect” and “honest” are not ones usually associated with you.)
There is so much more to discuss about your letter to Juan Williams. You ask him at the end of it to invite you to come on Fox News for “some in-depth discussions about the terrorists’ real motivations. We can’t let another day go by in which the PC brigade stops us from telling the truth…”
Well, I agree and make the same request of you. Let’s engage in a public debate. You pick the time and place. I’ll bring the truth – and your donuts.