There are a few different events that led the United States to become a target of terrorism. Depending on one's opinion of the U.S., people as less or more apt to believe in one way or another. For those who dislike us, the predominant opinion most likely blames American foreign policy and imperialism. For those of us who love our country, we sway more to the hatred of freedom type issue.

American imperialism has been an accusation ever since the late 1800's. While back then some moves were made to expand the borders of our country, that argument no longer holds sway. Yes, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Texas once belonged to other countries. I find it very hard to believe that terrorists are bitter from the annexation of Texas, which leads us to recent history. Over the past 50 years, America has been blamed for interfering with internal affairs of other countries. Some of the people in those countries, especially those in the Middle East claim that that is why they hate us. This is quite a strange situation. Billions of dollars each year go to helping foreign governments run their countries, but don't believe the United States should have any say in what it is spent on. If you were to borrow money from the bank to buy a house, don't you think the bank would have a problem with you spending that money on a vacation? Now imagine that the money is given to you with no talk of paying it back. Should the bank still have no say in how you spend it?

The support for Israel is often a battle cry for terrorists. For the past 40 years, America has given aid to Israel in the order of billions. The point that is often missed is that ever since Jimmy Carter was president, whatever the dollar figure was that was given to Israel, that is matched in aid to Egypt. Is that unconditional prejudice?

Many patriotic Americans, including myself believe in another cause of terrorism here in the U.S. Throughout the 1990's we were warned. At least seven or eight times, we were pretty much told that they were targeting us. Bill Clinton was president and every time we had an attack, the reaction was the same. Every time, there was a promise to hunt down the terrorists and bring them to justice. When our soldiers in Somalia were killed and their bodies were dragged through the streets, we did not respond with force. We cut and ran, because that is what President Clinton thought the people would want. Mr. Clinton ran the country not to fail. In doing so, he failed to succeed. Over and over, our interests were attacked. Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Yemen, Germany, Somalia and more. This is how Osama Bin Laden came to consider us a paper tiger. They thought we didn't have the stomach for casualties, and maybe they were right. After September 11th, it finally hit home. We were a target. I thank God every day that Bill Clinton was not the president that day. Now, in 2008, can we really afford to have his wife in office?

Learn more about this author, Pete Murphy.
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