Don't confuse us with the facts...

In last week's Republican debate, Rudy Giuliani scored major points with the audience when he rejected the suggestion by Ron Paul that U.S. foreign policies contributed to the terrorist acts on September 11, 2001.



The unfortunate truth is that Ron Paul is right. It is important to make a distinction between what Ron Paul said, and the ridiculous remarks of people like Rosie O'Donnell, who believe something other than airplanes brought down the World Trade Center.



"...first time in history that fire has melted steel"? Rosie must be unaware that the process of making steel uses heat to liquify it. Apparently, we defy physics every day just by making steel. Out of fairness, though, I must also contradict what the blonde on the other end of the table was saying. There wasn't any real evidence that Iraq was directly involved in 9/11, then or now. To suggest otherwise just proves that The View can present both sides of the argument incorrectly. If you watch The View, please stop. Now.

Back to the point, though. It's much easier to paint the world in black and white, and to picture ourselves as the good guys -- especially when an event as horrible as 9/11 occurs. It's easy to stand in front of a crowd, talk about "evil-doers," and use platitudes such as, "They hate us because we're free." Osama bin Laden couldn't care less that we're "free." His primary desire is not to destroy our freedom, but to free the Middle East of U.S. influence. Sure, he hates America. He would ruin us if he could. He is an enemy of our country and our way of life. But if we ever hope to be successful in "winning" the mythical "war on terror," it is important that we understand its roots.

Terrorism has been around in one form or another for thousands of years, so the idea of "winning" against terrorism is absurd. However, to minimize its impact on our way of life, we need to understand the motivation of terrorists. We can try to foil their plots for an eternity, but one successful attack that slips through the cracks of our defenses is one too many. Therefore, the only way to truly win is to eliminate the desire to attack us in the first place. I'm not suggesting that we "surrender" to terrorists' demands. We must continue to root out terrorists wherever they are, but we must also learn, as a nation, to behave in a way that doesn't breed terrorism. Many of our foreign policies have been ill-conceived or even hypocritical. We claim to champion freedom, but have frequently bolstered monarchs, tyrants, or despots, because we valued the stability they provided in a region. We must acknowledge that when we support a tyrant, even for the benefit of our national security, there is a price to pay. The people who suffer at the hands of that tyrant will place at least some of the blame for their suffering on the United States. We can expect, in an increasingly global world, that when those people choose to strike back, their aggression will not be contained to their corner of the world. They will attempt to strike at us wherever they can. We can hate them for their acts, but until we recognize our role in encouraging hatred, we will never be able to "win."