Why do they hate us?

Our most critical national concern today is terrorism. There are people trying to kill us, and working towards leveraging their killing power with WMDs.

An obvious key question in this is why do they hate us? The answers to this question are important in formulating our responses. Can we soothe their anger? Is there some way to make nice? Do we just have to lay waste to some people and blast them into submission?

Those are the most practical issues, but there are also moral issues. To what extent if any have we brought this on ourselves?

I've got an ongoing discussion on some of this on Todd Yarling's blog. As one of my bestest college buddies and a staunch libertarian, it's not surprising that he's supporting my candidacy. However, he takes a signficantly different view of just some of these foreign policy issues - and he's not afraid to take me to task. Short version, I (reluctantly) supported the Iraq war and a fairly hawkish response to Muslim/Arab extremists, and he opposed the war.

Anyway, we've got a discussion on these matter ongoing. CLICK HERE to join in.