Rationalization or Denial?

As I was going through some old files, I found this little bit, written a few months ago. It's still pretty relevant today:

I've often idly wondered why deep racists bothered denying the holocaust. If the Jews are so terrible, so subhuman, then what was wrong with sending millions of them to the gas chamber? Why spend so much effort denying something that the morality of deep racism indicates is a positive good?

Along similar lines, Best of the Web made an interesting observation:

There's an intriguing parallel between Holocaust deniers, who argue simultaneously that the Holocaust didn't happen and that the Jews had it coming, and those in the Arab world who say both that Sept. 11 was a "remarkable achievement" and that Arabs didn't do it.

Even more odd is that those who deny Arab responsibility for 9/11 often claim that Muslims would have been justified in the attacks, given the oppressive policies of the United States. It all sounds like that most ridiculous courtroom defense: "I didn't do it, but if I did, it was justifiable homicide."