Undeserving of his surname

You have to wonder what kind of speaker's fee is paid someone like the University of Colorado's Ward L. Churchill, chairman of the CU Ethnic Studies Department. How much is it worth to learn more from a man who says that the victims of 9-11 were not "innocent" and thus merited their fate.

Churchill, a longtime American Indian Movement activist, is drawing fire for his pending appearance at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., and for an essay he wrote about 9-11 entitled "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens." We could go into the details but you should read them youself. A small taste, perhaps, from the Rocky Mountain News article:

The essay contends the hijackers who crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11 were "combat teams," not terrorists. It states: "The most that can honestly be said of those involved on Sept. 11 is that they finally responded in kind to some of what this country has dispensed to their people as a matter of course."

AND

"As for those in the World Trade Center," the essay said, "well, really, let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break." The essay goes on to describe the victims as "little Eichmanns," referring to Adolph Eichmann, who executed Adolph Hitler's plan to exterminate Jews during World War II.

Churchill is one of the "blame America first and for everything" people who are so well represented among university faculty. That, sadly, is no surprise. There is the same reliance on hazy generalities of American wrong-doing, and a gleeful rejoicing in the specific harm inflicted upon Americans and American interests. Missing is any moral foundation that would justify their arguments.

Mr. Churchill, if you know the specifics of an American atrocity, you should use your position and abilities (your voice) to seek redress of the wrong. You have a moral obligation to say something then. You should not use the relative safety of your high ivory tower to merely wait until something bad happens so that you can say, "See I was right, and now you evil Americans are being punished." Doing so only exhibits a moral cowardice and a hiding behind the shield of academic freedom and the First Amendment.

In short, we suspect you are not a legitimate champion of human rights. We suspect that you are a leftist gas-bag who dishonors his surname. It's a shame you can get paid for this tripe.