A different view and the U.S. in the world

First off, one of the biggest gifts I will take from this trip to the Middle East is the realization that, no matter how much we may gripe and groan and complain about our own government, globally, it really IS the world's (currently) last remaining superpower (however, I do believe China is geting up there, and Russia is trying to find its way back...).
Really - I never quite realized how "important" our actions and beliefs are to the rest of the world. I always thought such views were us citizens being jingoistic. But it is not the case - the rest of the world really DOES care about what we do and what we say... so let's be respectful of that fact, I say!
And also, with that kind of governmental power, we as citizens are still given the freedom to say whatever we wish about the government, and to protest and rally against it when we feel the need to. Special.

Okay, so this next bit started as a mini-rant/political discussion that I was relaying to Kirsten...
To all those of you who think how wrong we went in our warring, this is a different take on it. And this view has actually been echoed by my Nepalese hotel worker friend, and a couple of others. I think the trend is that perhaps the Middle Eastern people who have been directly affected by our acts (Iraq, Iran, etc.) look upon our government and our president unkindly. But those who come from countries where terrorism, war, and violence have been part of the daily grind for years, and whose own governments are corrupt, funding such acts, or whose governments do not have the power to fight such terrorism... those people see our acts in Afghanistan and Iraq as necessary evils to show the world that we will not stand for terrorism against us... that we are standing up for ourselves and should be content with doing so, even if targeting the corrupt means occasional losses of the innocent. (Also, most of the people with these views do not believe that many of those who have been killed by US forces really are innocent...)
But take what I say as a novice opinion - I am only just learning about such things!

My Lebanese friend Aida, who I met during the craft show excursion, did give me something to think about - this different view. From her view - of living in Beirut during so much violence, and watching Syria send terrorists into Iraq, and so on... She thinks Bush, while looking a bit like a bully, is doing the right thing. That we as a nation had to do SOMEthing after 9/11 to show we wouldn't stand for it, and that by picking the fights against Iraq and Afghanistan that we did, we were standing up to governments that support, fund and house terrorists (and Aida believes that it is, after all, nations that support terrorist activities, through physical and fiscal help). And thereby we (the U.S.) are showing the world that we will fight back. And that that would in turn make other terrorists think twice before hitting us again. Also that if we hadn't done something it would just get worse. And that it already had (starting back when with the Yemen attack on the USS Cole, and then embassies, etc... Or was it the other way around?)

Meanwhile, as I was writing this in my email to Kirsten, I was hearing a Saudi in the conference room next door saying, ..."That stupid asshole, George Bush..." as he and a Brit, and some other men were discussing OUR nation's politics, and how all Obama's talk of "Change, change, change..." will still not make a difference...
I found myself getting just a tiny bit offended. This trip really has opened up my mind some. Just a tiny bit...
:)