After attending a 9/11 panel in northwest D.C. on Monday, Ralph Nader told The Nation‘s George Zornick that Americans had mostly ignored the reasons that the terrorist attacks occurred.

“All we want to say is that it was a terrorist attack, it was evil, don’t talk about what caused it,” he said. “What really lead to it was, one, we back dictators over there that repress and kill their own people with American arms. Two, we support the Israeli position against the rights of the Palestinian people to have their own state. And three, we have repeatedly failed — no matter how much money we spend — to defend our own country.”

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“The folly of the military-industrial complex is that it not only erodes our economy and destroys a quality standard of living, but it also insures an empire which is insatiable in terms of the contracts that Lockheed Martin and others want to dominate the world,” Nader added. “It’s just the opposite of defense, an empire eventually devours its own people.”

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) was booed at the CNN/Tea Party Republican debate on Monday night for trying to explain why al Qaeda had attacked the U.S.

Watch video, courtesy of The Nation, below: