Political theorists of our time

I have never heard of an actress called Maggie Gyllenhall, but her political opinions, as reported by the BBC, are highly familiar to me:

Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal has prompted outcry after she remarked that the US was "responsible in some way" for the terror attacks of 11 September 2001. Gyllenhaal was speaking at an interview promoting her new film, The Great New Wonderful, about people living in New York in the aftermath of 9/11. In a subsequent statement issued by her publicist, she defended the comment.

"Not to have the courage to ask these questions of ourselves is to betray the victims of 9/11," the 27-year-old said.

In the statement, Gyllenhaal said 11 September was "an occasion to be brave enough to ask some serious questions about America's role in the world". She added: "It is always useful as individuals or nations to ask how we may have knowingly or unknowingly contributed to this conflict."

What can you say of a young lady for whom history has never happened, and who mistakes amorality and ignorance for personal bravery? The notion that we - the western democracies allied to the United States - might have knowingly provoked the murder of 3000 civilians is beyond everyday categories of stupidity. The amount we contributed to this 'conflict' unknowingly is moreover a matter on which it is unnecessary to speculate, for we already know the answer: it is zero. The theocratic totalitarians who attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon did not leave a suicide note, but their leader has made no secret of his ambitions. As he explained to the BBC in an interview in 1998, he regarded "holy war against Jews and Christians" as a duty. We could adopt every single policy laid out in the 2004 election manifesto of Ralph Nader and still be the target of holy war by our declared Islamist enemies. There is no negotiated solution possible in such a conflict - only military victory for our side or theirs. And to paraphrase Christopher Hitchens, this is just as well, because what their side objects to about us is everything - everything - that distinguishes our societies from the clerical barbarism that they represent: democracy, pluralism, liberal political rights, sexual equality, religious liberty, homosexual rights and so on.

Maggie Gyllenhaal managed to reserve a casual blasphemy for her coda:

She also expressed her grief for "everyone who suffered and everyone who died in the catastrophe".

With the phrase "everyone who died" she includes - if I may employ a Gyllenhaalism, "knowingly or unknowingly" - the bigots and fanatics who carried out these monstrous acts of terror. I trust that in conveying that judgement, she will find that the exercise of free speech that her country protects will nonetheless not be commercially costless to her. That is as it should be.