A few things strike me about the recent conflicts, though (Iraq, Afghanistan).
1. Bush said during Iraq, and I quote, ''
God would tell me 'Go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan, go and end the tyranny in Iraq''. In making this statement, Bush has made these wars religiously motivated of sorts. He's, deliberately or inadvertantly, made this conflict not just a secular or political conflict, but a religious conflict. So I can understand why Middle-Eastern Muslims view this is a crusade and respond to it as such (killing Christians just because they are Christians, etc). I don't condone it, but I can understand it.
2. Bush invaded Afghanistan on the back of 9/11, to kill the terrorists.
None of the 9/11 bombers were Afghans, and they were trained in Pakistan. That's kind of like the British Army invading Germany to wipe out the Irish IRA bombers responsible for the attacks in England.
3. Bush spoke of Saddam Hussein's tyranny against his people, in that he killed almost
half a million people (about 300,000 of which were killed in the war against Iran, initiated by Iraq,
a war which the US openly and publicy supported, then used against Hussein, citing the mass casualties thereof). Iraq, at this point, has suffered anywhere between
500,000 and 1,100,000 excess deaths due to Bush's war,depending on the source material, of which less than 50,000 are combatant deaths. That means Bush has directly or indirectly instigated more civilian deaths than Saddam Hussein ever did. Iraq, in this respect, is no better off. That doesn't include the many deaths in Afghanistan, either.
4. Perhaps most alarmingly, the 'kill list' (America's list of targets) at the beginning of the war was less than a hundred.
Now it is in the thousands, and includes boys not even out of their teens yet. There have also been verifiable reports (see ''Dirty Wars'') of children and pregnant women being murdered,
and of US soldiers plotting to cover up the blatant murders. If you want answers as to why this kill list has increased, and extremism has become more prevalent, and more young men join these organizations, look no further than incidents like these.
It is, of course, the nature of war for their to be casualties, but Kaylagirl, this war benefits nobody. Not you sitting at home as an American (who the Middle Eastern world wrongly assumes is just as careless and violent and unrelenting as any of those who perpetrate heinous acts out there in Afghanistan and Iraq, just as tyrannical as the people who sanction such operations); not your children in their future lives growing up; not the Muslims in America who were victims of smashed shopfronts and brutal beatings after 9/11; not the young American men out there who think they're fighting for justice and peace; not the men and women of Afghanistan and Iraq who've suffered American brutality, Hussein's brutality and extremist's brutality; not the young men in Iraq and Afghan who feel they have no choice but to sign up and oppose the American interests in these countries; not the world at large who watch this; not the average citizen of both America and Afghanistan who is bombarded with propaganda; not the families of victims of 9/11, many of whom oppose using their loved ones' deaths as justification to murder hundreds of thousands of innocents.
It benefits only those who would benefit from war; those who make money from its perpetuation; those who gain power through such violent means; those who need this war to continue for either financial, political or egotistical reasons. This is evidenced in that the kill list has increased, anti-Americanism has increased, anti-Islamism has increased, international laws have been violated, many innocents have died, and propaganda to my eyes has won out over common sense.