Hiroshima & 9/11

"The 9/11 attacks? Retaliation for U.S. bombing and blockading Muslim countries? How dare you suggest such a thing? What kind of low-life justifies terrorism?!"

"I'm not shedding a tear for Hiroshima or Nagasaki, let alone the firebombing of Dresden, Hamburg, or Cologne. The Germans and Japanese perpetrated atrocities. They had it coming."

~Same people.

Alas, it is Americans themselves who have a spun a dire lore of terror-apologetics, which dates back to FDR's war if not Lincoln's. For what were the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the firebombing of Dresden and Frankfort and Hamburg, and Sherman's March to the Sea if not acts of terrorism? Terrorism means nothing if it doesn't mean targeting civilians to advance political goals.

Truman, FDR, and Lincoln all had good reason, the court historians solemnly assure us, for targeting civilians. Indeed, they showed great leadership in resorting to it. Whereas the 9/11 terrorists had no good reason for taking out 3,000 American civilians on Sept. 11, 2001. They did it to lower their golf scores.

This much is sure. That whole "collateral damage" thing looks a whole lot different gazing up the barrel of a rifle. Here's hoping terror apologists of every stripe start puncturing those separate, watertight compartments of their brains.