We’re not just talking about how they’re fighting us. It’s how they’re fighting *each other* and handling this whole situation. That’s what we’re saying when we say “screw Hadj.” By the way, Hadji is a an actual word in the language used to describe somebody who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Anyway, it would be impossible for Americans to ever experience anything like what Iraqis experience. Even if somebody did invade us, we at least haven’t had the internal strife Iraq has had since its founding. I don’t think it’s simply being born as an Iraqi that has doomed people to act like that. So far as I’m concerned, we’re products of our environment. What I mean by that is if I or anyone else had been born there and fed the same propaganda they are, I’m sure I’d probably turn out just the way they have.

It’s very hard to describe to somebody who hasn’t been there just exactly how the Iraqi people are. You can’t trust a single one of them, and they do things to their own country and people that are simply horrific. For example: the single, worst thing I saw when I was over there was a baby that had been killed by a bunch of religious fanatics and then tossed in the dirt like some piece of trash. The poor thing was literally not any more than a year old.

To clarify, we don’t roam around “destroying neighborhoods” at random. If we do level a whole neighborhood, it’s for a good reason. It’s not a bunch of Ma & Pa stores we’re blasting oblivion. If anything, we’re spending more resources nowadays trying to help them rebuild their neighborhoods that they keep blowing up on their own accord in their war with one another. We’ve done everything we can to prop up their infrastructure, but you can only do so much when the people you’re trying help are sitting back and making no real effort on their own.

For example, when I was over there(roughly a year ago would put me mid-tour at this point), their legislature actually went on a 2 month vacation. Their country is riddled with all sorts of problems, and their response is to go on vacation. And if you want to talk about their leaders, like PM Maliki, their government is corrupt probably beyond your wildest imagination. Yeah, America’s not exactly a shining example of perfection or anything-not by a long shot–but our politicians could seriously learn some good tricks from those guys.

Things over there aren’t nearly as simple as “Country A invaded Country B, so now Country B’s people are uniting to fight back.” It’s really not anything like that.