Why don't Iraqis appreciate us more?

Mysteries of the mind. Perplexities of perspective. Obscurity of the obvious.

When Iraqis turned out in the thousands to march in support of Hezbollah during its active conflict with Israel in south Lebanon, President’s Bush’s observation was that he couldn’t understand why the Iraqi’s didn’t appreciate more what the Americans were doing for them. An interesting equation to make in its own right.

But here we are a country that is afraid of the possibility of the occasion of another terror attack while Iraq is a country that is engulfed by terrorism. If an equivalent number of people died here from terrorism last month that did in Iraq, it would amount to over 40,000 people. Imagine. Who would sleep at night? Who would drive the streets? Who dare move about?

We have de-stabilized a country, lost control of the security situation, cannot repair it and our leader has the audacity to ask for a more decorous level of appreciation.

The President quite often uses the term “mindful” when describing his opinions. That’s appropriate I think because I believe his was already full of pre-conceived conclusions that will not be changed or revised by contravening evidence or circumstances that don’t square with them. We all are tempted to deny that which is inconvenient for an already formed opinion or belief…but most of the time, thousands of people aren’t required to suffer and die because we steadfastly hold to it while a country of 20 million innocent people move toward self-destruction.