BILL TAMMEUS Wrong conclusion about Sept. 11

We measure out our lives by the tyranny of calendars. And so we have come again to mark the threnodic anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, a day that, in memory, still turns our hearts into gordian knots of pain.
Three years after terrorists -- misusing Islam for justification -- attacked the United States with hijacked airliners, Americans should stop long enough to offer a rebuttal to that stalwart defender of darkness and malevolent power, Ali Khamenei, the so-called "Supreme Leader" of Iran.
Khamenei does not come from the militant wing of Sunni Islam, as did Osama bin Laden's murderous Al-Qaida members. Rather, he is in the militant wing of Shiite Islam. But for our purposes today, it doesn't matter much what branch of what religion he's abusing.
Earlier this year, Khamenei -- leader of the religious thugs who have denied their own people fundamental liberties -- delivered a remarkable set of inanities that, in many countries, would qualify him for therapy at public expense.
'Liberal democracy'
"The source of all human torment and suffering," he intoned, "is the 'liberal democracy' promoted by the West as 'progressive political thought."' And this: "The torment of the Iraqis, of the Palestinians and even of the Americans [is] the direct outcome of liberal Western democracy..." And this: "... those who call themselves advocates of human rights and democracy are in fact the main supporters of crimes against humanity."
Because the word liberal today gets bloodied in domestic political combat, let's be clear that Khamenei is not referring to the left side of America's domestic political spectrum. Rather, he's using the word in its older and original sense in which, at least in theory, it affirms the dignity of every person, promotes and protects freedom, and creates institutions that allow civil society to function.
In effect, Khamenei is attacking a good idea and hoping to replace it with a terrible one associated with his late mentor, the Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini. It was Khomeini who led the 1979 Iranian revolution that has now so dispirited the Iranian people. The idea Khamenei now defends and promotes is called "Velayat-e faqih," which means authoritarian rule by clerics. The "Velayat" system vests final power in the Supreme Leader. With only minor checks on that power, his word is law. He is understood to be acting and speaking on God's behalf.
Sometimes Americans worry that their own politicians believe they are God's instruments, but we have ways of correcting such theological abuses. We can vote our leaders out of office. In Iran, as parliamentary elections proved earlier this year, the ballot box is a sick joke that offers no restraint on people who believe they are the arm of the Almighty.
But just because Khamenei is wrong about liberal democracy, we should not hesitate to identify those aspects of it that aren't working right. Then we should fix them. That's what vibrant political entities do. Self-criticism is a sign that the body politic is healthy. And when we are out of sorts with the world -- as America surely is today -- we'd do well to figure out how much of the problem is us and how much is not.
For instance, without falling into the "blame America first" trap, we should look deeply at what caused Americans to torture prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. The recent report by an independent panel that faulted top Pentagon leadership was helpful, and it showed how, at their best, liberal democracies operate in the open -- unlike the oppressive regime in Tehran.
It's also vital to examine the institutions society requires -- our schools, military, police, courts, electoral system and on and on -- to see where they are breaking down and how they can be repaired.
Idolatrous tool
And in our politics, we must denounce ways in which our nation gets turned into an idolatrous tool. When has that happened? Two years ago, when President Bush said this: "America is the hope of all mankind. .... That hope lights our way. And the light shines in the darkness. And the darkness will not overcome it."
That's almost word-for-word the claim the gospel of John makes about Jesus Christ. To make it about America in that way is simply blasphemous.
Khamenei is terribly wrong about liberal democracy. But his criticism from the outside should not prevent us from critiquing it from within.
X Bill Tammeus is a columnist for The Kansas City Star.