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How does any thinking person not realize that 9/11 is a direct result of US foreign policy? Is everyone (excluding R. Paul) in the GOP an idiot?

Why do they think that there have been no big terrorist campaigns against Canada, Mexico, <insert_non_US_country_here>?

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Why hit Canada? Why hit Mexico? Why hit anywhere when you can attack the beacon of Freedom in the world, the country that represents democracy and equality, the United States of America. It's a much more powerful message to attack the symbol of freedom in the world.

(That's just a POSSIBLE reason, could also have to do with foreign policy)

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maxtower - Everyone with any sense on the matter knows that our foreign policy inspires the hatred many muslims harbor toward us, even the ex-mayor of NYC. "They hate us for our freedom" slogans are just slogans used to sell our informal colonialization of the Middle East and to prevent Americans from having to ask deep questions about their country, their moral clarity and righteousness.

Ron Paul is not the only person to catch flack for stating the obvious, and he won't be the last.

Saying that, US Policy is not the only thing muslims hate, and the USA is not the only place attached by terrorists. Britian and Spain were attacked as well, presumably because their adherence to US Policy in the Middle East.

It's not that simple because terrorism is a hydra, and once it gets going, it grows in so many directions that you can't point it toward one country's policy. The truth of the matter is that at this point, there are people out there who want to commit acts of terror precisely because they do hate us because of our freedom. But the hard questions are how did it start and how can we make it end?

This is the question no one in power wants to be asked because the answer isn't hard at all. It began because we took over these countries (albiet the Europeans started it with actual official coloniztion), because we support Israel and because we are place despots and tyrants in power to steal their resources. All of this led these people to take a look at us, see our scantily clad women driving cars, and get pissed about Danish caricatures.

I don't know if we should or should not support Israel, but I think at the very least, we should accept that Israel has done some very [censored]'ed up stuff to the Palestinians. I don't know if we are justified in support regimes who will sell us oil for less than it worth, but at the very least we should accept that by doing so we are helping to perpetuate the cycle of poverty for these people. I don't know if we should let the Middle East divide back into the tribal regions in which it once existed, but at the very least we should be accept that if we going to suppress these people's drive for independence, they are going to see us as an "aggressor" and attack us when and how they can.

These aren't easy issues, because who wants to tell Israel their on their own? Who wants to pay $4.50 a gallon for their Ford Excursion? Who wants to sit on the sidelines as Kurds, Persians and Arabs go to war and genocides ensue?

No one talks about that, because you can't get elected by calling a spade a spade. Ron Paul has done precisely that, and while its news America needs to hear over and over, its news they don't want to hear, and that will cost him the election.

You can look at the hard truth, or you can listen to the mayor and decide that we can have our cake and eat it to. I suspect America by and large prefers the latter, which is sad because it is unsustainable.