I must be thick

I have been following the news from Iraq, both on Arab websites and the Western media. I find it very depressing to think of all the savagery that is taking place on a daily basis and of how peoples lives are in such turmoil.

What drives terrorists to use such barbaric tactics on an innocent civilian population. It is hard for me to rationalize the motivation. Put a bomb in a car and explode it beside people who happen to have chosen the wrong place to stand. What is achieved? I can understand targetting a military presence but why the innocents, what can possibly be achieved.

Even if I don't agree with a goal I realize that people will take actions to reach what they desire.

If militants want the US to leave shouldn't their war be directed towards the American soldier.
If destruction is directed towards a military target and unfortunately a civilian is hurt or killed at least you can see an element of chance and bad luck has occurred, but to deliberately set out to kill or maim these civilians is an act of undefensible evil.

If Islamic militants want the support of the ordinary Iraqui wouldn't it be wiser to befriend and support them rather than wreak death and destruction on a daily basis towards people who are only trying to get from one day to the next. Bob Dylan puts it in the best perspective with his line "It might be the Devil or it might be the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody. I guess it takes a poet to put it words that explains things. Whether Christian or Muslim there is going to have a lot of explaining to do when nature runs its course and I don't think who has the biggest gun is going to count for much.

Barbara Tuchman said it in her Pulitzer prize winning book "The March of Folly" it makes a case that people will bring about their own downfall by participating in acts that are clearly against their best interests and if analysed by any reasonable person can easily be understood as contributing to their ultimate downfall. When Saddam Hussein invaded Iraq I wonder if these thoughts went through his head. It was widely understood and proclaimed by no less a person Henry Kissinger that the most entrenched cornerstone of United States foreign since the 1950's was "do not let anything threaten the oil supply". What did he think was going to happen if he invaded Kuwait and took over its oil and as a by product of that threatened the stability of Saudi oil. As Dr. Phil would say "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING". Every person worldwide has the same inner feelings about freedom. Freedom is on the march in Muslim countries and in twenty years Al Quaeda and its cronies will be widely recognized as being just another flavour of the month and the insurgents of today will look back and say "what the hell were we thinking".
When Osama Bin Laden undertook to plot and execute an attack like 9/11 did he not pause for a moment and think about what the American response would be. Talk about being the author of your own destruction.

I am not proposing that I agree with all American Foreign policy but I do understand what some of it is, but have a very difficult time with the fallout from the execution of that policy.

I support the ideals of freedom as entrenched in the constitutions of our Western democracies, but have to wonder why the Americans don't have a better grasp on respecting those same freedoms when they intervene. The American psyche maintains that they are doing Iraq a favour by freeing them and starting them down a path to democracy. Democracy is good, the methodology used is bad. Happens every time when you don't place a high value on the lives of people who are not your own. I think the worst phrase that has been coined in the last 50 years has to be "collatteral damage", tried in Vietnam but has really come into its own in the last 10 years. Its the ultimate ugliness in the politically correct world. I hate what it stands for, and hate it even more because it's a phrase deliberately invented to mask the horror of what it really is, the taking of innocent life because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I guess its cathartic to not have to have to say "we murdered innocent bystanders".