No need to wonder. 1979 hostage crisis. Bombing of Marines in Lebanon. Hijackings. Murder of Americans on cruise ships. Blowing up embassies in Africa. Blowing up war ships in friendly ports. Bombing office towers. Flying planes into civilian office towers.
Did I miss anything? These all happened or were planned pre-Bush. Pre-"democracy by gun".
Involvement in the region of the middle east has been going on way before Bush and I never blamed him for it. He is the one currently creating chaos where none exsisted and making recruitment lines for terror longer.
We're not as dependant on the oil as is commonly purported. A small percentage of U.S. oil imports come from the middle east.
I heard it put into real terms once, I'll post a link if I find it....but it was along the lines of - if everyone in the U.S. drove 5 minutes less a year they could eliminate middle east oil imports altogether. Again, I may be off on the details....maybe it was an hour less a year or a hundred miles less a year, I forget. But point being, it was pretty insignificant in light of the big picture.
That's lovely even though companies like Haliburton are making a fortune off it and the price depends on middle eastern oil and that is a vested interest to the economy.
That's all well and fine but it doesn't explain why the "extremists" ply their trade in places around the world that have nothing to do with the U.S., indeed nothing to do with the west in general, and definitely nothing to do with "democracy by gun".
For example Bangladesh; Nigeria; Sudan; Thailand; Ivory Coast; Chad; Indonesia; Malaysia; Lebanon among others.
This is why I say the problem is global, the problem is growing, and the problem has nothing to do with Bush, U.S. foreign policy, or "meddling" in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sure, but they are not plying there trade against us. Also, if you believe the west has no role in these countries, you're nuts. Give the west time and there involvement will become more, how you say, obvious.
The problem is growing because of Bush's foreign policy and democracy by a gun.