Posted 5/19/2007 11:57:00 AM by Douglas

Unbelievably maddening. First off, it's remarkable that Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani are participating in a Republican debate parallel press conference at all: Giuliani is a communist and Paul is a libertarian. But Ron Paul goes out on a limb with the assessment that with regards to our disastrous foreign policy, our actions have consequences, and maybe the 9/11 attacks didn't occur because "they hate our freedom" or Britney Spears videos. Watch:

Wow. I know Rudy's no mental giant, but wow:

That's an extraordinary statement of someone who lived through the attack of Sept. 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've ever heard that before and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11.

The most disgusting part of that exchange? The thunderous applause after he made that statement. I guess I should expect everyone in the audience of a FoxNews debate to be that stupid, but I would have expected Giuliani to have read the 9/11 Commission Report. At least this part, section 2.2, "BIN LADIN'S APPEAL IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD." Guess what? They don't hate us for our freedom:

His rhetoric selectively draws from multiple sources-Islam, history, and the region's political and economic malaise. He also stresses grievances against the United States widely shared in the Muslim world. He inveighed against the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam's holiest sites. He spoke of the suffering of the Iraqi people as a result of sanctions imposed after the Gulf War, and he protested U.S. support of Israel.

But back to Rudy's diatribe. Paul never said we "invited" the attacks. He implied that maybe some of our actions overseas could piss off some people that have nothing to lose, which I think most reasonable people could agree with. Just not at the Republican debate, but to go full bore hysterically crazy, you gotta go with Sean Hannity. Watch:

What a virulent wanker. Hell is the impossibility of reason, and that's exactly what this sounds like. How can you discuss something with a person who has made up their mind on the issue based on an emotional overreaction?

What a pathetic commentary on the state of political discourse in this country.