[Kobi]

Originally Posted by popcorninthesofa

To all those Americans here who think what we've done is just as bad as OsamaBin Motherfucking Laden: You people should really try to make me understand this better by leaving my evil country and go live with Osama's family and start blowing up women and children in the name of Allah, if we're just as bad. Disgraceful. All you need to do is look at the type of country we've produced, then look at the type of country the Bin Laden mindset has produced (like Afganistan under taliban) and what arguement do I need to make? Where people can mostly say whatever they want in public vs one where you can be beaten down in the street by religious poliice for not wearing the right clothes or listening to music? So why am I thinking bad thoughts about radical moslems? Blow me sir.

Pop,

With all due respect, I find this spewing of anger so offensive on so many different levels.

I am one of those Americans who is very concerned with the path our leaders are taking us down. I am not one of those linear thinkers who falls for "my country right or wrong".

One of the greast things about this country and the people who comprise it, is our ability and freedom to look at things. to question things, to struggle with the grey areas involved in the decisions that are made and the ways in which it impacts on our lives and the lives of others in the world.

We may have better lives by our standards than others but we also have a society that put profits above all else. Profit above people, profit above health care, profit above equality, profit above <insert choice here>.

And when we seek to impose our ideals, our beliefs, our ways on others there are consequences to bear. "Terrorist groups" arent created in a vacuum. They come about from oppression from within and without.

There is a ever growing grey area in my mind as to the motivations and methods that are being used in the world today, on both a micro and macro scale, and national and international level.

This grey area didnt materialize without a reason. The reason is some stuff just doesnt make sense. Those with power, the media, whoever can put a good marketing spin on things but when there is an absence of logic and reason and truth.....hopefully one struggles with the reality, rather than accepting it unquestioned.

Hate and fear are very unpleasant things that become manifested in very unpleasant ways. You dont stop it by becoming part of it. You stop it by stepping outside of it.