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Originally Posted by TM875
I agree with you totally, and I understand that, since birth, many of the citizens of the middle east have been taught nothing but hatred for the United States.
What I'm proposing is a change in the actions that we take that make them hate us and who we are. That is, stop meddling in their business, stop forcing our ideals on them, and allow those nations to be sovereign to themselves. By going to war in Iraq, we are directly imposing said ideals of justice and liberty for all onto a people who do not want/agree with these ideals. Thus, we are hated for our "oppression".
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But they don't hate us because of anything we do. They hate us because of what they've been told by their leaders for generations. The way to "get them to like us" isn't by bowing down to the demands of extremists. Its by fighting them and *gulp* implementing democracy in that region.
"Justice and liberty for all" as well as economic and social freedom are not Western Ideals, but Human ideals. Do you not believe that every person wants to be free? You don't opress people by liberating them from a totalitarian regime. We are not oppressing anyone in the middle east, except for saddam. By giving iraqis the tools they need to free themselves from oppression they will have a better understanding of who we really are and what we stand for, and that will spread throughout the middle east.
Now if we cut and run, leave their region and country in ruins with a shakey government, well, then they will have another idea of who we really are and what we stand for.
Being an economist myself, I think in terms of costs and benefits, and I see the benefits of our actions in Iraq far outweighing the costs - in the long run.