Jonah, Kevin is putting up a straw man. I don’t think that anyone here is claiming that D’Souza is trying to excuse 9/11. It’s quite clear from his book that he is not. As Kevin suggests, D’Souza is trying (at least nominally) to explain why it happened. I say “nominally” because in my view he is more interested in fighting the culture wars at home than Islamic extremism abroad, something that has led him to conjure up an explanation that simply fails to convince.
As to Kevin’s talk of the “left’s” (boy, we could argue about the way he uses that term) “cultural imperialism” (and that one too), and how it is supposedly subverting a traditional way of life against the “will” of peoples who, it seems to me, have rarely been given any opportunity to express that will, let’s just say that I’m not convinced. I note, in passing however, that, given the chance, many of those now living that traditional way of life seem to jump at the opportunity to try their luck in that wicked old America.
Oh, by the way, if we’re talking about who is exporting what to whom, lets also look at the way that the Saudi-funded variant of Islam has, in the space of three decades, corrupted, displaced or destroyed the different Islams that had evolved over centuries in countries such as Indonesia. That’s what I call cultural imperialism.
Finally (for now), can we just agree that, whatever its many faults, disgraces and worse, America’s culture does not deserve the adjective “depraved”? It’s not, and it’s silly to say that it is.