The ungreatful

I saw on CNN today where civilians with guns made us kill civilians who were protesting our presence there. They love the liberation but who will liberate them from themselves.

They are fundamentally unlike you and I. They to not aspire do what we do. Perhaps because they have never possesed it and just do not know or they are driven by generations of hate tought to them toward the sinfull western ways. Not to mention the Palistinion underlying issue with all of them.

To see this situation truly from thier perspective is difficult at best but you may rest assured the hate for us is real.

Leslie,
i've reread your post and am not quite sure where you're coming from. The other posts i read here seem to show that perhaps i'm not alone, but here's some shots from the hip:

How "grateful" can you expect a battered, terrified, and destitute population to be? After surviving Sadaam - who BTW, may not be dead- after living in a 30 year hell of secret police, fear of your own family members denouncing you, a disasterous war with Iran, sanctions, getting the begeebers bombed out of you by US and coalition forces, my suspicion is the only real gratitude they may have would be to Allah for having merely survived this long.

The USA has true enemies and few true friends in that part of the world, due in a very large part to US backing of Israel-right-or-wrong (and a few other client states,) and of looking the other way while Palestinian homes are bulldozed.

(As i write i am well aware that another Palestinian has gone to his "martyrdom" in Tel Aviv tonight. i can only say that i'm not surprised at such actions of dispair.)

Like it or not, agree or not, much of the world sees the US actions as an imperialistic projection of power upon downtrodden Muslims. They see and hear precious little in the actions and words of certain members of the Administration that would do much to counter these suspicions.

i tire of reading about how "backward" or "fanatical" or "how not like us" the Arab world is. What we need to realise is that it's high time we paid much closer attention to how we are viewed by the world at large, and by the Islamic world in particular, and what can be done to at least improve our PR there.

Yes, we have a mighty military, and could probably kick butt world over, but what is the real cost of "winning" this war? Have we REALLY made the world safer?

Yes, ultimately it is up to the people of Iraq to liberate themselves. We just did the first dirty job on that path for them, now it's up to us to let them finish the job. We cannot impose a political solution that they can be expected to abide by.