‘Why the onslaught?’

Conservative activist/writer Dinesh D’Souza has, for some reason, apparently been criticized for blaming the left for the terrorists’ hatred of the United States in general, and 9/11 in specific. Apparently, it’s all about the culture. As D’Souza explains it, Osama bin Laden and other dangerous Islamic radicals believe the U.S. is too secular, too permissive, too diverse, too free, and too tolerant … and D’Souza believes they’re absolutely right. Therefore, logically, the left invites attacks by reinforcing the beliefs al Qaeda has about the United States.

The answer, apparently, is to shift our culture to the right, appease the terrorists, and stay safe. After this jaw-dropping, book-length argument drew criticism, D’Souza took to the Washington Post to defend himself.

[I]n my recent appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” I had to fend off the insistent host. “But you agree with the Islamic radicals, don’t you?” Stephen Colbert asked again and again. Why the onslaught? Just this: In my book, published this month, I argue that the American left bears a measure of responsibility for the volcano of anger from the Muslim world that produced the 9/11 attacks.

First, Stephen Colbert did ask the question “again and again,” right up until D’Souza answered it — by acknowledging that he agrees with some of the things radical Islamic extremists are against in America. The problem wasn’t that the interviewer was incessant; it’s that D’Souza admitted that he was sympathetic to terrorists’ cultural critique of the United States.

Second, D’Souza does more than just argue that the left “bears a measure of responsibility.” He actually insists that the left is the “primary cause of the volcano of anger toward America that is erupting from the Islamic world.”

It’s a little late to backpedal now, Dinesh. If you wanted to soften the argument, you should have started before the book was published.



In his WaPo piece, D’Souza, apparently feeling a little sorry for himself, said the response to his idea has been “a little hysterical.”

I’m having a hard time trying to imagine what kind of response D’Souza expected. He wrote what has accurately been described as a “sleazy, shameless, ignorant, ahistorical, tendentious, meretricious lie,” which blames Americans for terrorists’ hatred, and recommends doing more to appease those who want to kill us. How, exactly, are reasonable people supposed to react to such transparent lunacy? Did D’Souza expect to be invited to Harvard to host a symposium on how evil modern America is?

If D’Souza wanted to be embraced as a serious person with a credible thesis, he should have written a serious book with a credible thesis. Ridiculous screeds tend not to go over particularly well. The fact that D’Souza is surprised suggests he’s even less in touch with reality than his book indicated.

D’Souza seems particularly sensitive about his patriotism.

…I feel silly having to say it: I don’t hate America. My last book was called “What’s So Great About America,” and there is no question mark in the title. If I hated this country, why would I have left my family and friends in India and moved to the United States, married an American and become a U.S. citizen? I came here because the United States gives me the freedom to make the life that I could not have made in India.

D’Souza’s obviously confused. You can love America, but if you hate Americans, describe them as quite literally “the enemy,” and insist they change in order to appease terrorists, your patriotism might be suspect.

Just a thought.