“The horror…the horror…”[i]-Colonel Kurtz
Back in 2007 and 2012, Ron Paul during his run for president in the GOP primaries that 9/11 was a consequence of US foreign policy in the Middle East, that it was, as identified by even the CIA, “blowback”.[ii] He made this argument again when he ran for president in 2011/12, and he was ostracized by the conservative elite as a crazy anti-American candidate. At the time, Marc Thiessen said of Paul’s stance on US Middle East policy that “These are not conservative positions. They are not libertarian positions. They are nutty positions.’[iii] Then later in 2016, Donald Trump said in a debate with Jeb Bush that the Iraq war was a catastrophic error, and that the claim that Bush “kept America safe” was a fiction, as 9/11 occurred under his watch.[iv] He also said that the US destabilized the Middle East, and elsewhere, Trump said that the Obama regime and Hillary Clinton had created ISIS and fueled terror in the region.[v]
This message, that the US was responsible for a lot of the violence that it wreaks around the world, especially in the Middle East, riled the illiberal liberal class and resonated with voters. Paul received incredibly high numbers of support from military veterans, as did Trump, who had railed against the Iraq war and US war policy overall in South Carolina, the state with the highest percentage of military veterans.[vi] Evidently, they did not feel trashed or disrespected by the arguments from Paul and then Trump that the wars they fought in were wasteful and tragic. On the contrary, they feel heard and represented when the very political class that shipped them overseas sees them as pawns in their war games, not as people with livelihoods.
Fast forward to now, Melat Kiros, a Democratic socialist, has just beaten a longtime member of Congress. Among her many arguments, there is one claim she made that echoes Paul, that 9/11 was a direct consequence of US foreign policy.[vii] Just as Paul was lambasted by the entire illiberal liberal class, especially the conservative elite, Kiros is being raked over the coals for apparently “justifying 9/11” or saying that America brought 9/11 on itself, and that the hijackers had no agency, that they had no choice but to commit an act of terrorism on US soil.[viii] There is a major quibble on whether Kiros was saying that 9/11 was inevitable or justified, with conservative blowhards claiming that of course she is saying that the attacks were justified. David Marcus, in a spat with Glenn Greenwald, said “What is the difference between saying 9/11 was inevitable or justified? By definition, if the terrorists had no other choice, if it was inevitable, then is not justified.”, and Greenwald later points out that if people are repeatedly bombed, have dictatorships imposed on them, and have their politics meddled in, then “it’s inevitable they will respond with violence. It’s about causation, not justification.”, to which Marcus retorts by saying “But causation is justification.”[ix] Violence begets violence, and yes, it is inevitable that at some point a people who are endlessly bludgeoned and occupied will respond violently. Saying that an event caused another event, or that a particular event is a factor in what led to a major event, is not the same as saying that an event happening justifies an event.
Having a reason to commit an act of terror does not justify the act, even if the reason includes brutality or terror. Again, violence begets violence. All that is created is an endless cycle of violence and repression. As Chris Hedges has argued, the US approach to the Middle East has forced a logic of mutually assured destruction, as if violence is the only language Arabs or Muslims/Islamists understand, then this “fuels those in the Arab world who also speak exclusively in the language of violence.”, and “In this demented world, friend and foe need each other.”[x] Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, and numerous other groups require the boot of US and Israeli imperialism and occupation to have an enemy to militarize and retain their power. Similarly, the US needs dragons to slay. It needs there to be a terror group, whether its Boko Haram or the Houthis, to bomb into oblivion and to keep thousands or troops and massive arsenals across Africa and the Middle East.
Contrary to what the likes of Marcus and other conservative elites are saying in response to Kiros, there is a major difference between saying the 9/11 was justified or deserved and that it was an inevitable consequence of US foreign policy. Kiros was specifically asked, after saying the October 7th attacks on Israel in 2023 were inevitable due to the occupation and repression of Gaza, if 9/11 was similarly inevitable due to its foreign policy in the Middle East, and she said that it was “Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East, which led people to believe that another act of violence was the only response. And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place,”[xi] Just as Hedges notes, since the US has only engaged in the region through violence, the worst actors in the region will inevitably be bolstered and exploit the terror being inflicted on people in their countries. Explaining the logic of an event is the not the same as justifying it. Those who gasp and clutch their pearls over such comments, declaring the speaker of being unpatriotic or anti-American, are deluded and refuse to grapple with the reality that people respond to actions in kind. If a people are bombed, occupied and has their states treated as mere sandboxes for the US and the West to play with their advanced, destructive toys, then it follows that they will respond in kind, with violence.
The idea that Arabs and countries like Afghanistan and Somalia only understand violence, that they do not respond to diplomacy and only see it as a weakness to exploit, is projection. We say it because it is the language we speak abroad, especially in the Middle East. We can call atrocities committed by jihadists, like 9/11, what they are, but we cannot ignore the reality of the death cycle of violence, what Hedges calls an “indulgence in necrophilia”, and that it can only foster extremism and result in violence, not peace.[xii] Whatever Kiros and her ilk think about economics, Palestine, or healthcare, her stated position on 9/11 and US foreign policy overall is correct and the backlash to it reflects a political class that has still not learned the lessons it should have from 9/11 and the global war on terror.
Western terrorism is not seen as terror, or even as violence. This continues to cloud our ability to meaningfully debate and understand the underlying logic of the Iranian regime, Hezbollah in Lebanon, or Hamas in Gaza, and how their violence is not abrupt or aberrant, it is part of a cycle, a death spiral. The continued refusal to at least engage with these ideas will doom the US and the West to another inevitability, death. Obsession and adoration of death and destruction will manifest it.
[i] Apocalypse Now, directed by Francis Ford Coppola (United Artists, 1979).
[ii]iRonPaulcom and Ron Paul, Terrorism: Ron Paul vs. Giuliani @ SC Debate, 2007, 04:35, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD7dnFDdwu0.
[iii]Marc A. Thiessen, “Seriously, Iowa? Ron Paul?,” American Enterprise Institute – AEI, n.d., accessed July 7, 2026, https://www.aei.org/articles/seriously-iowa-ron-paul/; Josh Hafner, “Santorum Calls Paul’s View on Sept. 11 ‘Shockingly Misguided,’” POLITICO, August 29, 2011, https://www.politico.com/story/2011/08/santorum-calls-pauls-view-on-sept-11-shockingly-misguided-062261; Scott McConnell, “Ron Paul and His Enemies,” The American Conservative, February 2, 2012, https://www.theamericanconservative.com/ron-paul-and-his-enemies/; Michael Tracey, “Rudy Giuliani: Ron Paul Is ‘Dangerous,’” Salon.Com, August 29, 2012, https://www.salon.com/2012/08/29/rudy_giuliani_ron_paul_is_dangerous/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ogshare&utm_content=og.
[iv] Michael Grunwald, “Trump Goes Code Pink on George W. Bush,” POLITICO Magazine, February 14, 2016, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/trump-code-pink-bush-iraq-9-11-213630.
[v]Josh Lederman, “Trump Refuses to Back Away from False Claim Obama Founded ISIS,” PBS News, August 11, 2016, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-accuses-obama-founder-isis.
[vi]Nicholas Confessore, “Veterans, Feeling Abandoned, Stand by Donald Trump,” U.S., The New York Times, November 2, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/us/politics/donald-trump-veterans.html; Gerhard Peters et al., “Ron Paul Campaign Press Release – Ron Paul Military Donations Nearly Twice Those of His GOP Rivals and Obama—Combined | The American Presidency Project,” The American Presidency Project, February 3, 2012, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/ron-paul-campaign-press-release-ron-paul-military-donations-nearly-twice-those-his-gop.
[vii]Chris Stein, “Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros Defeats 15-Term Incumbent in Colorado House Primary,” US News, The Guardian, July 1, 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/01/melat-kiros-democrat-defeats-diana-degette-blue-state-colarado-house-primary-denver.
[viii]David Marcus [@BlueBoxDave] and Glenn Greenwald, “Nobody disputes that the terrorists had their reasons for killing 3,000 Americans, it’s just, unlike you, most of us do not accept that their reasons justified their barbaric crime.,” Tweet, Twitter, July 1, 2026, https://x.com/BlueBoxDave/status/2072317470480674941.
[ix]Harrison Fields, “Memo to Dems like Abdul El-Sayed and Melat Kiros: My Mom Did NOT Deserve 9/11,” News, The New York Post, July 2, 2026, https://nypost.com/2026/07/02/opinion/memo-to-dems-like-abdul-el-sayed-and-melat-kiros-my-mom-did-not-deserve-9-11/; Leo Briceno, “Melat Kiros Wins Colorado Democratic Primary, Sparks 9/11 Debates | Fox News,” FOX News, July 2, 2026, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/social-media-erupts-socialist-9-11-comments-house-primary-win; New York Post Editorial Board, Melat Kiros’ Sick Views Are Just the Latest Evidence That US Schools Need to Be Fixed, July 4, 2026, https://nypost.com/2026/07/04/opinion/melat-kiros-sick-views-are-just-the-latest-evidence-that-us-schools-need-to-be-fixed/.
[x]Chris Hedges, “Opinion | Mutually Assured Destruction in the Middle East | Common Dreams,” News, Common Dreams, July 15, 2006, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2006/07/15/mutually-assured-destruction-middle-east.
[xi]Stein, “Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros Defeats 15-Term Incumbent in Colorado House Primary.”
[xii]Chris Hedges, “Opinion | Mutually Assured Destruction in the Middle East | Common Dreams.”
References
Chris Hedges. “Opinion | Mutually Assured Destruction in the Middle East | Common Dreams.” News. Common Dreams, July 15, 2006. https://www.commondreams.org/views/2006/07/15/mutually-assured-destruction-middle-east.
Confessore, Nicholas. “Veterans, Feeling Abandoned, Stand by Donald Trump.” U.S. The New York Times, November 2, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/us/politics/donald-trump-veterans.html.
Francis Ford Coppola, dir. Apocalypse Now. United Artists, 1979.
Gerhard Peters, John T. Woolley, and Ron Paul. “Ron Paul Campaign Press Release – Ron Paul Military Donations Nearly Twice Those of His GOP Rivals and Obama—Combined | The American Presidency Project.” The American Presidency Project, February 3, 2012. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/ron-paul-campaign-press-release-ron-paul-military-donations-nearly-twice-those-his-gop.
Grunwald, Michael. “Trump Goes Code Pink on George W. Bush.” POLITICO Magazine, February 14, 2016. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/trump-code-pink-bush-iraq-9-11-213630.
Harrison Fields. “Memo to Dems like Abdul El-Sayed and Melat Kiros: My Mom Did NOT Deserve 9/11.” News. The New York Post, July 2, 2026. https://nypost.com/2026/07/02/opinion/memo-to-dems-like-abdul-el-sayed-and-melat-kiros-my-mom-did-not-deserve-9-11/.
iRonPaulcom and Ron Paul. Terrorism: Ron Paul vs. Giuliani @ SC Debate. 2007. 04:35. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD7dnFDdwu0.
Josh Hafner. “Santorum Calls Paul’s View on Sept. 11 ‘Shockingly Misguided.’” POLITICO, August 29, 2011. https://www.politico.com/story/2011/08/santorum-calls-pauls-view-on-sept-11-shockingly-misguided-062261.
Lederman, Josh. “Trump Refuses to Back Away from False Claim Obama Founded ISIS.” PBS News, August 11, 2016. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-accuses-obama-founder-isis.
Leo Briceno. “Melat Kiros Wins Colorado Democratic Primary, Sparks 9/11 Debates | Fox News.” FOX News, July 2, 2026. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/social-media-erupts-socialist-9-11-comments-house-primary-win.
Marc A. Thiessen. “Seriously, Iowa? Ron Paul?” American Enterprise Institute – AEI, n.d. Accessed July 7, 2026. https://www.aei.org/articles/seriously-iowa-ron-paul/.
McConnell, Scott. “Ron Paul and His Enemies.” The American Conservative, February 2, 2012. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/ron-paul-and-his-enemies/.
New York Post Editorial Board. Melat Kiros’ Sick Views Are Just the Latest Evidence That US Schools Need to Be Fixed. July 4, 2026. https://nypost.com/2026/07/04/opinion/melat-kiros-sick-views-are-just-the-latest-evidence-that-us-schools-need-to-be-fixed/.
Stein, Chris. “Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros Defeats 15-Term Incumbent in Colorado House Primary.” US News. The Guardian, July 1, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/01/melat-kiros-democrat-defeats-diana-degette-blue-state-colarado-house-primary-denver.
Tracey, Michael. “Rudy Giuliani: Ron Paul Is ‘Dangerous.’” Salon.Com, August 29, 2012. https://www.salon.com/2012/08/29/rudy_giuliani_ron_paul_is_dangerous/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ogshare&utm_content=og.
Not Without Incident: Questioning Big Brother's Platitudes 
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