With election time right around the corner most students are obviously taking time to voice their opinions. One of the main focuses for each candidate is our current foreign policy. While my decision for president is trivial to all who read this, I would like to say a few words regarding our foreign policy and terrorism. I want to ask my fellow students this. Why do they hate us? It seems this question is drowned by political rhetoric nowadays. The question was first asked on 9/11 following the attacks on the WTC. And a good question it was. There were many proposed reasons in America such as religious fundamentalism and hatred of freedom for why many in the Middle East resent the West in general. What I simply propose here is an idea that I really don’t quite hear often, which is the history of the region. If one looks at the history of the Middle East and the Western powers’ involvement in it throughout the past 60-70 years, I think many reasons present themselves as plausible causes for resentment, whether it be the Iraq sanctions in the 90’s that killed thousands of children, or the coup d’etat of the Iranian president in the 50’s and the imposition of the Shah by the U.S. and Britain.

Another possibility could be the massive military, financial and political backing of the state of Israel by the U.S. and Britain. And last but certainly not least in importance may be that the U.S. provided arms and money to both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein during the cold war, two brutal regimes that were killing people but who also happened to be anti-communists, fitting snuggly in the justification of the cold war. This is not intended to be unpatriotic literature, but merely a way to possibly answer this question of why we are resented by many in the Middle East.