“We’ve toppled governments, we’ve done coop d'tat, we’ve used intelligence services for covert purposes, and done horrible things around the world, and we have put up with the most heinous human rights abusing countries. We have propped them up; we’ve even trained them how to commit human rights abuses. Today’s demon was yesterday’s friend, all in the name of the cold war or for commercial reasons. It’s basically economic colonialism.” (Why we fight)

These nations we exert our military force over are typically second or third world nations. Their militaries are usually barely enough to protect them from the tribal uprisings and minor conflicts that occur with their neighbors. When the full might of the American military engages them, they are typically defenseless. Even in cases when we fund and/or equip one of their enemies to do the fighting for us, they are still at a great disadvantage. In these situations, a people have limited options. They can choose to die, surrender, or fight the best they can. This is why America experiences terrorism. Terrorism is essentially guerrilla warfare on a global scale. Military science tells us that this is the most effective way to resist a superior force. This practice was even used by the U.S. in the Revolutionary War against the superior British Empire.

These Muslims are fighting for their faith but also many times for their survival. When we take control of these nations we install our companies to conduct the business of their economy. We do not do it to benefit them. The Muslim middle class finds themselves at a greater disadvantage all the time. Many of the Islamic Militant Organizations even recruit suicide bombers on the premise that they will go to heaven and, by the way, they will give their starving family a large sum of money. If these young men do not turn to these organizations out of anger and resentment then they turn to them to help their families. The extremists have learned to fight the hearts and minds war as well as the United States, investing in schools and hospitals for the poor. So in their suffering, some of these people found some sense of victory in seeing America vulnerable, on such days as September 11, 2001.

However, the moderate majority of Muslims felt bad about what happened. Even one of our current adversaries, Iran, had thousands of citizens holding a candlelight vigil in honor of those killed in the September 11 attacks. Saudi Arabia is regarded as an ally to us. However, they did not hold any similar vigil. This illustrates how much false propaganda Americans are basing their opinions on. Today we are beating the war drum against Iran, despite their support for us in our time of mourning.

Today is one of the worst times in history to fly the star-spangled-banner overseas. How we arrived at this point can be exemplified further by our diplomatic moves with Iran since September 11, 2001. Following all the support they offered, we slapped them in the face. The 2002 State of the Union address, given by President George W. Bush, declared Iran as one of the “Axis of Evil” (Whitehouse.gov). The Iranian factions that were in favor of more democracy and less theocracy were brushed to the side, and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was elected with the support of the Ayatollah Khamenei.

We have also continued with further offensive intrusions in to, what the Muslims identify as the Holy land. We continue to escalate our military forces in Iraq, even today. As a result, we have seen almost 4100 American Military members killed. However, we do not even acknowledge the loss of Iraqi Civilians. Their total is estimated at well over 41,000. That is more than a 10/1 ratio of Iraqi Civilian deaths to U.S. Military deaths (Icasualties.org). During Operation Iraqi Freedom, we bombed 50 locations with the intent of taking out Iraqi/Terrorist Leaders. We used large payload strikes in populated areas. Out of 50 attempts we successfully killed 0 targets and hundreds of civilians (The Oil Factor). It is clear why some Muslims feel we are fighting a war on Islam instead of a war on terror.

As Americans we hold the burden of responsibility for the actions of our leaders. We form opinions and express those opinions in polls and elections. In doing this we form, for the leaders of this nation, consent for them to carry out this kind of foreign policy. It is our responsibility to actively educate ourselves, and our peers, to change the public opinion and to ultimately elect leaders that will support a foreign policy that makes ethical and well informed interactions with the rest of the world.

In their role as a government watchdog our press needs to be held accountable for their part in the mass exaggerations of facts that is taking place in America. We must exercise caution in choosing news sources that practice accuracy over sensationalism.