Forgive, Don't Forget

Roland Martin wrote a great article about Congressman Paul's comments about the Iraq War during this weeks GOP debate. Here are some excerpts:

"As Americans, we believe in forgiving and forgetting, and are terrible at understanding how history affects us today. We are arrogant in not recognizing that when we benefit, someone else may suffer. That will lead to resentment and anger, and if suppressed, will boil over one day"

"At some point we have to accept the reality that playing big brother to the world -- and yes, sometimes acting as a bully by wrongly asserting our military might -- means that Americans alive at the time may not feel the effects of our foreign policy, but their innocent children will"

Hmm...he might be on to something here. I never thought that our actions (murder, occupation, exploitation) could come back and actually work against us. Maybe they really don't "hate our freedom". Maybe they have a legitimate reason for being angry (though in no way justifying horrendous attacks on innocent people).

If you couldn't tell I'm being a bit sarcastic here.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one (not really, but I feel like I'm amongst the minority) who sees through all the fear-inducing rhetoric or flat out propaganda that ceaselessly dehumanizes Middle Eastern people. If anything, many Middle Easterners probably yearn for freedom more than Americans, since we have come to take our basic freedoms for granted. Don't forget that freedom (in a political sense) is different (but not necessarily better or worse) in different places. I would like to point out that the Koran has supported the right for women to vote since the inception, and many Middle Eastern countries have had women presidents or prime ministers. Now, I know they have many issues with womens rights and equality, but look how long it took the United States to allow women to vote, and we have not yet had a women president.