There are many despotic governments and their citizens suffer from human rights abuses and deplorable and preventable economic conditions. The United States has chosen Iraq as the "most" evil. I wonder why Iraq is more evil than North Korea, China, Russia or any numbers of regimes in Africa and elsewhere.
I wonder if oil might have something to do with it.
Any student of American history knows the United States has never been reluctant to make "regime changes" whenever and wherever they like. But, our government reduces the complex explanations into simple rationales based on the emotional appeal of good (us) and evil (them).
When so much is at stake, we, as citizens, are called on to take responsibility to ask the hard questions and seek out and understand the complex answers. One of the most difficult questions to ask (because we may not like the answer) is: Why are we the subject of terrorism?
I suggest a little realism here. Let us not "look into the glass darkly," but truly seek to understand how our neighbors perceive us, ask the hard questions around our foreign policy and ask our leaders to be accountable.