...but I can't reconcile the attitude of...
"the world now has two fewer of the more grotesque monuments to American Capitalist excess" with the "lament" that you feel.
I grew up in a little place called Los Angeles. I've always felt skyscrapers blocking the view of a beautiful sky ugly. Hence, "grotesque monuments". That they were a monument to the victory of American Capitalism I thought was a matter of no dispute. "The World Trade Center" was a name chosen by chance?
What you support by your statement is the systematic destruction of anything that would remotely show the US as successful. Your attitude considers this as "understandable".
Do you think it is impossible to understand a point of view that you disagree, even vehemently, with? Apparently so.
Worse yet...the rabble that is leading this charge is wealthy beyond belief. Wealthy beyond belief as a by-product of the success that you seem to think can only be described as "excess".
The ones that survive, yes. The homicide/suicide bombers, no. Wealthy psycho-paths like bin Laden exploit the animous felt by the impoverished towards the US. That this animous exists is at least in part because of our export of our brand of "I got mine, now you go get yours because I ain't gonna share" capitalism.
You might as well just admit to the underlying "we deserved it" inherent in the statement quoted from your first post.
I started not to reply to this because it is pure horseshit. You're reaching here for a position you want to assign to me that I do not now, ever have nor ever will hold.