Hamas in Gaza (merged thread)

[AdmiralAdama]

I hate to winge but we have facilitated the opportunities that each of these entities is taking advantage of. They see the opportunities but our own political blindness gives America a horribly naive, onesided, undiplomatic and cultural tone-deafness not seen since 1860.

Iran has been at war with the United States since 1979. I believe that the "everything bad in the world can be traced back to US blunders" theory is simply not respectful of our opponents -- their ideology, their goals, and their strategies to carry them out. Blaming the US for expansion of Islamofascists is like blaming the UK for Nazism or blaming Roosevelt for the spread of communism. Some ideologies have great power to spread evil, and these have to burn themselves out or be destroyed by assault, subversion, containment, etc.