I didn't give the West a free pass, but I think that the lion's share of the blame resides with the very people who flew the planes into those buildings.
Foreign policy is not static. It changes. We fought two wars against the British and now they are our closest ally.
For instance, you couldn't find a single Lebanese person in the 1950s with a bad thing to say about the U.S. Now, for some reason that they don't even know, they despise everything we stand for.
They attack because they are brainwashed from child birth and driven by religion. Not because of our relations with a shah over 50 years ago.
What does this have to do with anything?
"paid thugs" -- okay, sure some people consider Blackwater to be mercenaries, but this isn't a very convincing parallel between the Nazis and today's America.
"wiretapping" -- if the CIA wasn't tapping phone calls from numbers received in the seizure of Zawhiri's rolodex, it would be the height of irresponsibility. Give me the name of one American citizen who has been "harassed" by the NSA or CIA's wiretapping programs. In fact, the PATRIOT Act and NSA have collectively prevented attacks on the Brooklyn Bridge, Sears Tower, and Goldman Sachs building to name a few.
"targetting the opposition"/"control the press" -- you can't be serious. Last numbers I saw indicated that 90% of people working in the media (universities, Hollywood, network television) vote Democrat. In fact, more than 66% of the reports leading up to the 2006 elections were either unfavorable to the Republicans and 77% of the press was favorable to the Dems.
"Dissent equals treason" -- I don't know about you, but I see plenty of dissent to go around. Additionally, you must never confuse dissent with disloyalty.
"suspend the rule of law" -- like Adams, Lincoln, Grant, Wilson, FDR, and Clinton? Give me a break.
