The vast majority of the Muslim world was fond of us prior to the war in Iraq. But since then, goodwill has eroded precipitously. Through its policy decisions, the American government is turning off people who should be on our side.
Ah, yes, those pre-Iraq War halcyon days back when the Moslem world loved us!
I get all weepy when I recall the love expressed with the 9/11 attack in 2001.
Truly I am sad to see the love of the 2000 Cole attack gone.
What can one say about the deep respect that the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings showed?
I get downright giddy when I remember the Khobar Tower bombing in 1996.
Who can ignore the goodwill that led to the first World Trade Center attack in 1993?
Can you forget the close buddies we had in the Moslem world who were responsible for the Beirut Marine barracks bombing or the bombing of our embassy in Lebanon in 1983?
And of course, that fond student exchange that went awry in Iran when Iranian students seized our embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held our staff hostage for a year and a half surely brings a lump to your throat when you contemplate their love of America, right?
Oh wait, don't forget the attempts that didn't work in the Golden Age of happy days such as the failed Millenium Bombing attack in 2000 or the busted plan to blow up our airliners over the Pacific in the mid-1990s?
Yep. Good times. Good times. Pity we had to go and ruin our image by overthrowing a genocidal war-mongering dictator by liberating Iraq in 2003.
Really, if overthrowing the likes of Saddam reduces our image among Moslems overseas, do we really care? Should we? And let's not even discuss the good will that did not stick in the Moslem world when we rescued Moslem Kuwaitis in 1991, or Moslem Somalis in 1992, or Moslem Bosnians in 1995, or Moslem Kosovars in 1999. And should we dare mention the opportunities and freedoms we've provided to Moslem immigrants fleeing the poverty and oppression of their homelands?
Don't get me wrong, I think we must distinguish the Islamist jihadi enemies from the majority of Moslems who would not go all jihadi on us. But I do get sick of all the crap about what we've supposedly done to make some in the Moslem world hate us and others to have less goodwill toward us. They will find excuses to hate us regardless of what we do:
Islamic terrorists are attacking people on nearly every continent -- many who have little or nothing to do with U.S. foreign policy. Multicultural, huggy-bear, we're-not-in-Iraq Canada has uncovered a plot by 17 Muslims to invade its Parliament and chop off the prime minister's head.
Perhaps terrorists see countries that make sensitive analyses of their complaints as easy marks. If so, then the eagerness to prettify mass murder with "root causes" could itself be a root cause.
And at least we can say that since the invasion of Iraq no jihadis have attacked us at home.
We need to continue to defend ourselves and worry about the polling data of the Moslem world after that. Reversing the equation hasn't worked so well for us.
Honestly, the fondness of the Moslem world and two bits will get us a cup of coffee, as the saying goes.
I'm not sure what we really lost by losing their goodwill.
