Opinion Forum

What Bill Ayers Thinks

February 23rd, 2009

Bill Ayers, erstwhile terrorist bomber and current professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago, will be interviewed on Fox News tonight by Alan Colmes, according to Drudge.

Ayers, who holds the titles Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar, spends his time these days working on education reform, curriculum, and instruction. Ironies abound.

On setting bombs when he was with the Weather Underground, Ayers reportedly says to Colmes:

I don’t regret anything I did it to oppose the war. It was — I did it to oppose the war. I don’t regret it.

I don’t look back on those things and regret them, but I’m willing to rethink them. And there are many things which I’m going to rethink.

On President Obama’s decision to send 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan:

It’s a mistake. It’s a colossal mistake. And, you know, we’ve seen this happen before, Alan. We’ve seen a hopeful presidency, Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, burn up in the furnace of war.

I fear that this brilliant young man, this hopeful new administration, could easily burn their prospect of a great presidency in the war in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

The greatest irony is that the country he hates and would destroy is one of the few countries in the world that would let him get away with what he, his wife, and his friends tried to do. In most other countries, he would be speaking from a prison cell, if he could speak at all.

Perhaps the most important question is why anyone cares what Bill Ayers thinks.

(This article was also posted at Centerfield.)

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, Bill Ayers, terrorist
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

5 Responses to “What Bill Ayers Thinks”

doris | February 24th, 2009 at 6:57 am

I don’t think he hates this country, he was a war protester. He hates war and in a fanatical way was showing his love for his country. War protesters love their countries as much as soldiers, in my opinion. They just don’t get paid for it. Of course, Ayers did it all wrong and I don’t agree with his methods at all, but his reason was the same as any fanatics, love and the insane idea that all is o.k. in the name of your cause.

Kevin | February 24th, 2009 at 10:21 pm

I concur with Doris.

Tom | February 25th, 2009 at 6:27 pm

Ayers and his terrorist wife and friends bombed a number of public buildings. They didn’t actually kill anyone, probably because they were incompetent. In fact, some of their number were killed while trying to put together a bomb containing nails. Nails in a bomb are designed to shred human beings. Does all that equal “hate” for his country, its government, and his fellow citizens? Works for me.

Maybe the problem is the tense of the verb. Should it be “hated” because he did all that many years ago? Even recently, he says he doesn’t regret what he did and at least implied that he would do it again. Nope–the present tense “hate” still seems right.

Being a war protester is fine. No one supports freedom of speech more than I do. But planting bombs in public buildings is not speech, even by the most radical definition.

Final thought: Presumably rational people who repeatedly professed their visceral hatred for President Bush somehow can’t bring themselves to be overly critical of a scumbag terrorist like Ayers. Go figure.

doris | February 26th, 2009 at 8:36 am

Oh contrare, Tom! I definitely am not defending Ayers, I said he was a lunatic fringe…I just am correcting the notion that he hated this country, he did not, he hated the politics involved in the war, a huge difference. Do you assume that Muslims who bomb us in Iraq, hate their country, when they bomb the new officials that we placed there? No,they hate the politics and devoutly love their country. Crazy or not,lunatics or not, it’s all done for the love of their countries and because they think their way is the right way, not even knowing they are deranged, like Ayers. I do not know why he did not pay for these crimes if we know that he did them???? But be assured he did it for love and hate. I was against Bush and who could defend him??? I am definitely not in favor of terrorism, bombs or most assuridly, Ayers, but understanding his reasons is a thing I can do, my mind is open to all things, even alot of distasteful ones.