Some thoughts

I am a patriot. But I believe in the constitution. I don't need people to interpret it for me, I see clearly what it says.

Now if only people would follow it...

Originally posted by dom
>I would like to know how you think the US is acting like "a bunch of overly aggressive idiots"?
>
>Also I would like to know what Al-Qaida's "genuine greivances" are?

I've already stated some of Al-Qaida's problems with the US. US troops in Saudi Arabia, the general impression that the US are trying to take over the Middle East, the Israel-Palestinian situation. Personally UBL is pretty pissed off with the CIA, who left him and a lot of his men for dead in Afghanistan (back in the late 80s). Basically, it's all about the perception that the US are trying to crush the Middle East under their heel.

And the overly aggressive nature? Try attacking Iraq without international backing, or threatening to attack Iran/Syria in public, or GWB talking about the axis of evil, or GWB saying "you're with us or against us", etc. etc. etc..

Donald Rumsfield is the US's WORST PR tool. GWB is the second worst. And Richard Perle is a close third.

Ok, troops in Saudi Arabia. They were there because Saddam invaded Kuwait and was about to invade Saudi Arabia. This is not a "genuine greivance". We had to protect Saudi Arabia and liberate Kuwait.

How are we taking over the Middle East? If this is their preception then they are way off track. This also would not be a "genuine greivance".

Isreal/Palestine. What should we do about this? We had a peace agreement worked out and Arafat backed out. If we didn't support Isreal they would be overrun by the surrounding countries, we don't have much of a choice in this matter.

Mad at the CIA? The CIA did more to help the Afghan's win the war against Russia than anyone else. Without the help of the US and the CIA they wouldn't have stood a chance.

I agree that most of it is perception, but they have no genuine greivances. They have no right to use terror to kill our citizens.

As far as the war with Iraq goes, we are justified in what we are doing there. If Saddam hadn't invaded Kuwait in the first place we would never had gotten to this point. I think we all know the world will be a safer place once he's gone.

This war has nothing to do with Syria or Iran and they should stay out of it. If they want to get involved then they can expect to be treated the same way as the Iraqi army.

Saudi - So why did the troops stay there after the war finished? They're still there. US military bases are dotted all over the Middle East, Qatar, Bairahn, etc.

Israel/Palestine. Arafat didn't walk out, he just said he needed more time and the Israeli's never came back to the table (strangely that was Sharron's choice). I'd hardly call the deal that was offered amazing though, it still didn't entail the removal of Israeli settlements...

The CIA - well UBL was from Saudi, why were the CIA paying him to run operations against the USSR in Afghanistan? Why after that did he become so violently opposed to the CIA? There's some interesting books that talk about it...

But overall you're right, nothing excuses killing innocent civilians. But then 30K die every day from preventable disease and starvation, which makes the 3K who died in 9/11 seem a little bit insignificant.

The Iraq war might be justified in your eyes, but not in the eyes of the majority of world opinion, or Middle Eastern opinion, and that's what counts.