OTOTOTOT
Agree with some of your points, but disagree on others.
"It's perfectly normal for people to wish USA would not maintain military bases on their holy land"
We have or had bases in Saudi Arabia at the request of the Saudi Arabian government. They wanted protection from Saddam. Now that Saddam is not a threat anymore, we pulled our troops out. You'd think the Saudis would be grateful. Or at the very least, be angry at their own gov't for asking US troops to be there, not angry at us for supporting an ally of ours against Saddam.
"But you also don't want to create a war by the wrong choice of words that doesn't accurately represent the picture. If our govt incorrectly said, "we are at war with all Muslim countries", that would have a completely different interpretation than, "we are at war with all terrorists and those countries that support terrorists, and we are also focused on rooting out all educational material that your countries uses that creates a culture of hate towards the USA, etc."
Excellent point, which is why it would help to have a president who is adept diplomatically. Unfortunately, Bush is not adept in this way.
Having said that, the Muslims and the rest of the world for that matter tend to blame the U.S. for everything. The truth is most Americans would like nothing better than to see a world with absolute freedom, like we enjoy. It would have direct benefits to us to see this. I believe that the Muslims the world over need to take a hard look at their own religion and cultures and figure out what they are doing wrong. The blame should not be placed solely on the U.S. Frankly, I think that is a copout by the Muslims. It's part of the duplicitous game the Arab regimes play over there. They make us out to be very evil to distract the population from the real problems like poverty, oppression, lack of freedoms, etc. Again, they should be angry at their own governments first. Then use the U.S. to help them gain their freedom. Instead, they actively fight us, which makes their situation worse. |
