Those Terrorists ~ Them!

When bombs go off in London, it's a terrorist attack.


When bombs go off in Baghdad, it's us defending ourselves against the evildoers.

Don't mistake me; I am very well aware that the methods used by al Quaeda and its fellow travellers are intended to harm and kill innocent (well, uninvolved) civilians. Our interest is to harm and kill armed opponents. The uninvolved civilians we kill are just the unfortunate "collateral damage" any war creates.
Do you believe the people in Iraq understand that difference? Or the people in the middleast who get their news from al Jazeera? I think what they see is people who look and sound like them attacking people who look and sound different and who invaded and are occupying their country. I think that most Americans would probably side with American "insurgents" who would take up arms against an invading and occupying foreign army. Except possibly people like Dick "Other Priorities" Cheney and likeminded archcons, or neocolonialists.
I was watching Newshour a little while ago. At the end of each newscast they spend a few moments in silence while showing photos of the American servicepeople killed that day in Iraq and Afghanistan (remember Afghanistan?). I was struck by the sense I felt of how my country had betrayed the trust of those dead soldiers. The way we cynically and unjustifiably sent them to Iraq to pursue an unjust cause. A cause, furthermore, that cannot succeed. I recall a recent presidential candidate, whose name I believe was George W. Bush, who pledged not to engage in "nation building". I wonder how things would have gone had he been the one appointed to the presidency?