A sad, yet not totally unexpected thing has happened in our nation as the Sept. 11 attacks move further away in the expanse of time.

Almost from the beginning, we have heard from various pundits of the left wing persuasion invading our TVs and radios pleading with our government not to attack Afghanistan and that due to America’s foreign policy “crimes,” this nation ultimately deserved what happened to it.

And now we have the Northern Coalition for Peace and Justice, which in its Sept. 28 editorial in the Northern Star said, “America needs to think about the consequences,” and among other things stated that the root cause of the attacks was “our reckless use of military power in the region,” and that our country inadvertently paved the way for the Taliban to rise to power by funding and training it during Afghanistan’s conflict with the Soviet Union.

The twisted logic of the coalition and other extreme leftist organizations that we have heard from in the recent days is simple: what happened in New York, Washington, D.C., and western Pennsylvania was bad, but evil America has done far worse in its so-called “repression” of people all over the world. We are the source of evil because of our foreign policies and military actions, and we “had it coming.”

One cannot help but get the feeling that the coalition and other extreme leftist organizations are using the events of Sept. 11 as nothing more than a tool to further emphasize their pure hatred for America. No other logical conclusion can be reached. While certain aspects of our foreign policy could certainly be re-examined, it is cruel and almost certainly insensitive to blame this nation for the unspeakable atrocities that have occurred to us, especially given the shabby reasoning the left has offered us.

First, ask yourself this: when has our nation killed over 6,000 people in a single day in the Middle Eastern region? Then, probe your mind for clear-cut examples of how our military has been “reckless” in that region.

Are they speaking of the bombing of the pharmaceutical factory in Sudan as a response to mastermind Osama bin Laden’s bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya in 1998?

The facts are clear in that incident: We bombed at night to minimize the death of innocent civilians and only targeted places where we were sure bin Laden or his cohorts were.

Are they talking about the various attacks on Iraqi targets that have taken place in the years since the Persian Gulf War ended?

Again the facts are clear: civilian deaths in these attacks have been miniscule at best, and have been in response to Iraq’s stubborn refusal to forfeit their testing of nuclear weapons and violations of such things as the “no fly zone” over their country.

So what are they talking about when they say “reckless use?”

The fact is that the use of our military in the Middle East and elsewhere, while certainly questionable at times, has most certainly not been reckless. In all our nation’s wars and conflicts, we never have taken the land that we successfully defended. We have taken pains to avoid civilian casualties in regards to our military affairs. But if civilian casualties are to occur in this war, and they most certainly will, then unfortunately it will be a case of collateral damage. Not the homicidal U.S. military trying to kill everyone as the extreme left would have us believe.

But if you were to listen to the extreme left, you would think that our foreign policy was shaped by a two-fold question of which nations we can oppress and how many people we can kill.

Also skewed is their thinking regarding what should be done in the aftermath of the attack. They claim instead of military action, we should simply make a “reassessment of our policy initiatives.”

But what they fail to understand is that a man like bin Laden’s hatred of the United States runs far deeper than any policy decision. His is the type of religious fundamentalist who will not cease his activities until all the world either conforms to his extremist interpretation of his religion or is overthrown and killed.

He more than likely neither knows nor cares about clothing and apparel sweatshops. He pays no attention to the actions of the World Trade Organization nor the G8. He wants the U.S. to be destroyed. And in the mind of Osama bin Laden, and the other ringleaders of Jihadistan, no amount of policy changes will eliminate their desire to ruin this country.

And as stated in this column before, he will not stop until he is captured or killed.

While we negotiate terms leading to “global peace,” our safety will continue to be put in compromising circumstances. ABC News reported Monday that a cell of terrorists were arrested with computer programs and information designed to work towards their goal of leveling the Sears Tower with a truck bomb.

According to the editorial, the Coalition says that while we should support the movement to overthrow the Taliban, we should do so “without the use of cluster bombs or ground troops, both of which have proven wildly unsuccessful in the past.”

Of course, but sitting in a circle around MLK Commons holding signs and strumming a guitar on an idle Friday afternoon will certainly cure whatever ails us.

And besides that, nothing drives home a point like a carpet bomb.