Susan Sontag: Public Enemy No.1

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.

Malkin quotes the Washington Times as saying Sontag "blamed America for the September 11 terror attacks", linking an article from Deutsche Welle in which Sontag does no such thing:

Sontag, who has spent much of her literary life going back and forth between Europe and the United States, questioned why Europe and America had drifted so far apart. Criticizing Bush’s "imperial program," she lambasted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s division of Europe into old and new.

The author, who was in Germany at the time of 9/11, described the outpouring of sympathy the Europeans felt for the United Sates, but said much of it had been squandered since then. "What has followed is an increasing estrangement on both sides."

"How odd, that when Europe and America are so culturally similar, there is such a divide," she added.

There's more, but not a single word of blame. Sontag has no time for Bush, but she doesn't blame America for 9/11 - at least not like, say, Jerry Falwell:

"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize American -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"

For that matter, Michelle, you blame America too.