<we are funding our own destruction>
We have been down this path before in our history, and it seems to be a lesson we are unwilling to learn.
Reading the last few excellent posts, reminded me of some thoughts I have slowly developed over the years. The foreign policy of our country, as expressed in everything from CIA moves to seat or unseat a foreign dictator, to selling arms and training to anyone as long as they weren't Communist, has operated on a moral level that is not consistent with the beliefs and attitudes of the majority of Americans. As a result, many citizens of poor foreign countries do not see the side of America that we see, or that we think that THEY should be seeing. They see an "ugly" America, willing to go to almost any extent to bully, strong arm, and yes even kill, to continue our power and control. From our side, we said that since we were facing a huge Communist threat everywhere, that those actions were unfortunately necessary. The problem is, many in the third world saw the United States as the power and the arms behind the tyrant dictator that oppressed their people, and Communism as the movement OF the people to end that domination. We sided with the most powerful individual/party/group and armed them to the teeth, just as long as they were "pledged to fight Communism!"
Of course if a few thousand innocent lives get destroyed in the process, well that is the price someone had to pay to stop the Red menace. (Central and South America/Africa/Southeast Asia...etc. etc.)
But what else could we do? Fairly easy really. You beat the Kremlin at its own game....you support the PEOPLE! Arm and train them and they will be a thorn under the Soviet saddle and make the world safe for democracy.
Right.
So we outfit and train Ben Laden and friends to drive the Soviets from Afghanistan, which they do quite effectively.....and forget to check the psychological profile that shows....my God, he hates America too!!!
A similar path that we have followed unfortunately, elsewhere in the world.
In my humble opinion, and I may be way off base here but it is the way I feel at the moment, I think our entire foreign policy protocols need to be overhauled to project the same feeling and attitudes and beliefs to the world OUTSIDE, that we hold so dear and precious AT HOME. It used to be that terrorists said "We hate your government but love your people". Now they are not making any distinction....
Don