Blaming Ourselves: September 11 And The Agony Of The Left

In the weeks following the September 11 attacks on America, Australian newspapers carried many letters, and some articles by leading commentators, suggesting that the deaths of thousands of civilians were, if not deserved, then certainly directly caused by the values and policies of the United States, in particular, and of the West in general.

In other words, the Left broke its habit of a lifetime, and blamed the victim. This response, which shared many of the assumptions of the anti-globalisation movement, revealed a deep antipathy to the liberal values that underpin both America and Australia.

'Blaming Ourselves' argues against this response. Its contributors directly answer the anti-Americanism of the critics, restating - and applauding - the liberal principles of moral, social, economic and cultural freedom on which most that is best about Western civilisation is based. Usually we take these principles for granted, but there are times - and this is one of them - when we need to remind ourselves of their uniqueness and importance.