Pro-Terrorist Arrogance

So we've been hearing about how terrorism will stop if only we listen to their grievances, improve their economic situation, etc. On the other hand, the terrorists tell us clearly what their grievance is - we're infidels, and we're alive.

Now it seems to me the height of cultural arrogance to keep saying that this is in fact NOT their real complaint - that, like most Americans, all the terrorists need is a little attention and more than a little money thrown at them. Here they are telling us plainly that their goal is our destruction (or conversion - same thing), and here we hear pro-terrorists tell us no, these terrorists don't know what they're talking about. Underlying this claim is the belief that these terrorists are just Americans (whatever that means to them) under the skin; that it's not possible for any culture to be otherwise; that they just have to be as reasonable as we are, and want the same things that we want. And all the while they keep telling us otherwise.

If that's not cultural imperialism - not to mention a lamentable inability to parse statements of intent or to understand the world - I don't know what is.