Quote Originally Posted by bluefinger View Post
To be honest, it's the Bush/Blair duo that has done a lot of damage to the stability in the Middle East, and it mostly revolves around how they both have dealt with the Israel/Palestine issue (which ultimately, is the source of a lot of anti-Bush/US sentiment). But that's politicians. Where politicians start wars, it is the army that finishes them, and I think this fact is the most important one to highlight. The US Army is simply doing it's job. Any campaign that is done to improve the view of the US must show the Army in a more favourable light, as opposed to all the FUD the terrorists spread.
A lot of that has to do with protecting what was the only democracy in the Middle East. The Cold War had us obsessively protecting democracy, and that drive is still with us. I think protecting Israel is understandable to a major extent, but it definitely has its problems. It is the number one thing we do to piss off terrorists, not that they are legitimate in being pissed off about it. I have a lot of sympathy for the idea of protecting democracy everywhere, but I also think the Arab-Israeli conflict is a complicated and inevitable clusterfuck that we probably should not have gotten involved in. It has been going on since Biblical times, and the Middle East is going to have to be drastically altered for it to ever stop. No peace deal is ever going to work. People are fighting over land because they think God gave it to them. When war goes on for thousands of years based on an idea that is that insane, I just about say live on that land at your own risk.

Quote Originally Posted by bluefinger View Post
I don't feel it's entirely accurate to say the "Hate Bush" Club is hurting the progress, because some do have good reasons to dislike him. It's the ones who blame the army as well for a politician's mistakes that are the ones not helping.
Criticizing Bush is totally fair game and even necessary. When I say "Hate Bush cult", I am talking about the obsessive people who go way overboard with it and relentlessly attack Bush at every turn as if he is the villain in their religion. They hate first and fill in the blanks second. That is very hurtful to the world. It riles up the terrorists a few more notches. Criticizing national leaders even on the most vicious of levels is everybody's right, or at least should be, but it ideally should be done with complete intellectual honesty and a sense of responsibility.