Did I Read That Right?

Sometimes you have to read something twice just to make sure you got it right. That happened when I checked out Reza Aslan's piece in Slate, "Why Do They Hate Us." And I'm not talking about this snide little bit that opens the essay:

Why do they hate us? Americans have been asking this question for nearly six years now, and for six years President Bush and his accomplices ["accomplices"--that's nice] have been offering the same tired response: "They hate us for our freedoms." With every passing year, that answer becomes less convincing.

This is a straw man argument (I don't know anyone from Bush on down who simply says this is the answer and nothing more) where the straw man is actually better than the author's answer.

In fact, a large part of the reason is they do hate us because of our freedoms, based directly on their actions and words (even though Aslan prefers to believe Osama Bin Laden when he denies this through sophistry).

No, this was the part.

What al-Qaida does lay out, however, are grievances—many, many grievances. There is the usual litany of complaints about the suffering of Palestinians, the tyranny of Arab regimes, and the American occupation of Iraq. But again, legitimate as these complaints may be, there is in these writings an almost total lack of interest in providing any specific solution or policy to address them.

"Legitimate as these complaints may be"?! No, the problem with Al Qaida, above their illegitimate tactics, is their main grievances are not legitimate.

Then, to make matters worse (or more stupid), Aslan blames Bush for making the problem worse. Worse? Al Qaida declared war on us, wished for our destruction and planned 9/11 all before Bush took office. Have they declared double secret probation war on us since then? (I'm not going to get into the irrelevant and, I'd say, false argument that Al Qaida is more popular now--I've dealt with this elsewhere.)

Apparently, Bush's big mistake is insisting on a clear distinction between us and them, which Aslan believes helps Al Qaida (though Aslan has no trouble pointing out distinctions--say, how we deal with due process--so long as the comparison makes Bush look bad). He ends his piece with the words of Bin Laden to prove this point:

[Bush] stated clearly that this war is a Crusader war. He said this in front of the whole world so as to emphasize this fact. … When Bush says that, they try to cover up for him, then he said he didn't mean it. He said, 'crusade.'

This is Bin Laden's false perception, as well as him parroting, as he often does, false claims that some in the West make. But instead of condemning Bin Laden for his foolishness, somehow Aslan tries to condemn Bush for it. On one point I agree with Aslan--much of this is a battle of perception. Instead of clearing things up, however, Aslan is muddying the waters.