rant · moment 15 of 24

Tekken 2 and the "They Hate Us for Our Freedom" Era

from The Presidential Debate & Eating Cats | The Tim Dillon Show #409 · #409

4 min

Tim recalls being told terrorists hated America for shopping malls, amusement parks, and Tekken 2, then traces how the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war and decapitating regimes was sold as the fix.

In this bit7 moments
  • Tim explains the post-9/11 reasoning that terrorists hated us for our freedom—specifically for shopping malls, amusement parks, and video games like Tekken 2.
  • The solution was to invade their countries, decapitate their leadership, and install democracy, based on the belief they wanted pro-Western leaders.
  • Tim jokes that no one would fly a plane into a building if they had Tekken 2.
  • Without invading Afghanistan and Iraq, Tim says, subways would fill with sarin gas or be hit with suitcase nukes on the way to Yankee games.
  • Iraq turned out to be three warring groups that hated each other, kept in check only by Saddam Hussein's brutal dictatorship.
  • Tim compares Saddam Hussein to an exasperated mother in a minivan threatening to kick everyone's ass to stop her fighting children.
  • The neoconservative assumption that removing Saddam would make Iraqis grateful and pro-Western simply wasn't real.
Mentioned here

Saddam HusseinIraqBush DoctrineAfghanistan9/11neoconservatismTekken 2

All 24 moments in this episode →