Reading this essay and watching some of the anti-American protest on television bothers me very much. These protesters carry banners that read "Bomb Texas. I Like Iraq," and "Bush is the Real Terrorist". It is a given that the United States could not be sincere in its attempt to rid the world of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. It has to be a cloak for an oil-grab; or a Zionist conspiracy; or a corporate coup. These demonstrations portray the United States as almost morally equivalent to the Islamist terrorism it is trying to hold back. This anti-Americanism movement rarely proposes anything positive. They speak of American’s mistakes without ever crediting America's successes. These people even make excuses for the barbarity of Saddam Hussein, the cruelty of the Taliban, and the malevolence of al-Qaeda.
The facts don't seem to matter to them. America is portrayed as an imperial force dedicated to what a Harvard professor recently described as "the crushing and total humiliation of the Palestinians." Yet it was an American President, Bill Clinton, who only a few years ago brokered a deal that offered the Palestinians sovereignty over 98 percent of the West Bank and Gaza. (Arafat said no and his people are still living with the consequences.) America is described as waging a war against Muslims. Yet in almost every recent American intervention--in Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan--it was for the sake of the security of Muslims that American soldiers risked their lives. America is described as relentlessly pro-Israel. But America gives almost as much foreign aid to Egypt and Jordan.
America is described as imperialist. But in Afghanistan, recently liberated by the U.S., the Americans have done all they can to set up an indigenous government, capable of self-rule, and are pouring millions of dollars into reconstruction. We certainly aren’t helping the Afghans for their oil. We are described as unilateralist. Yet, after the worst terrorist attack in modern history, the U.S. patiently assembled a coalition to rid the world of al-Qaeda's Afghan bases, and has waited 11 years while Saddam has violated almost every term of the 1991 truce. Even now, the U.S. has gone painstakingly through a U.N. route to achieve its goals. These are simply the facts. But in the new cult of anti-Americanism, facts seem irrelevant.
I know America isn't perfect, but its power is essentially a positive force in the world. Without America, Saddam might be sitting in Saudi Arabia today with an arsenal of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. And how do we know he has WMD? Because we gave it to him during the Iran-Iraq was, when we thought he was an ally. I admit that was wrong of us, just like it was wrong of us to back Osama Bin Ladin when he was fighting the USSR. How were we to know that he was going to have such hatred for us? That was the pass and we must look at the facts now. Fact: Bin Ladin and al-Qaeda was responsible for the attack on New York. Fact: The Taliban conducted terrorist activities with drug money. Fact: the Afghans lived under a repressive regime and feared for their lives. We talk about women’s rights in class and how they should be allowed the same educational opportunity as men. Yet we protest when our government wants to get rid of a regime that does not allow women to teach and little girls to attend school. Fact: Saddam attacked his neighbors. Fact: He gassed thousands of his own people. Fact: He imprisoned, tortured, and killed all those who questioned his authority. We can clearly see that his people are freed now that he is out of power. They are dancing in the streets after our military liberated them from one of the world’s worst dictator.
Although I strongly disagree with many of the messages brought forth by the demonstrators and the author, I know that if it weren’t for people like them, people who question and criticize our government, it would allow our government to have too much power.

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