>>>As for the Iranian civilian airline, that was obviously a terrible and costly mistake for the lives of innocent people. I won't attempt to downplay it, nor should anyone downplay events like Lockerbie, which was NOT an accident and "may" have had Iranian involvement.
>>>
>>>But horrible mistakes, however tragic, don't necessarily lead countries to war. If that were true, we would have bombed Israel after the U.S.S. LIberty incident in 1967.
>>>
>>>But regardless, the Iranian civilian airline incident does not pre-date critical incidents of open Iranian aggression against the United States, such as the U.S. Hostage situation or the suicide bombings that killed over 240 American Marines.
>>>
>>>As for your last line, that so-called "conclusion" about the roots of Iranian hostility towards the U.S. has been proven countless times to be historically absurd. Even governments in Europe find this particular "blame America first" theory to be false.
>>
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>>I'm not saying "Blame America " Kevin I am saying that foreign policy has its results. If (as you would like) the US attacked Iran where do you think that would end up in 10 years time. A peaceful middle east ?
>
>You're absolutely correct, but that is not the way most (I say most) americans think. They often fail to see events from their enemies perspective. With this stance, the US would *really* give them a very valid reason to attack the US interests at all fronts.

And your evidence for what "most Americans" think would be? In a February poll, 63% of Americans believe that economic and diplomatic efforts are the best way to proceed with Iraq's nuclear threat:

http://www.pollingreport.com/iran.htm

I feel comfortable saying that I know more Americans than you do. Given that most Americans see the nuclear threat as the greatest threat from Iran, I would say that "most Americans" do not want any interaction or dealing with Iran other than the nuclear issue and even then they prefer diplomatic efforts. I only know a couple of Americans outside of this forum who would support any action against Iran for their support of terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan either and I know a LOT of servicemen. Most Americans have a more 'get out of there completely' view (both economically and politically).

As to other policies which have destroyed the view of America in just about every country's populace, most Americans had no idea what was happening. It is impossible to know what is done in public or behind the scenes in every country by America. I lost all pretense of any blind trust in this government's policies back in the early 80s and it never came back. I still believe this is the best country in the world and I am loyal to it (the view of most folks of their own country) but it is far far from perfect. No government is.