A loon is a loon is a loon
You bet!
We are not creating them. They are rising to the challenge and were there waiting for one to come.
They knew it was coming. They caused it to come.
They know exactly what they are doing and we need to rise to that occasion. They are creating us!
A loon is a loon is a loon
As conservatives, thinking our way through problems should always supercede feeling our way through them. I'm more than a little concerned about how virulent peoples reactions have been when you try and look at the base of the problem. The war's gotten a lot more politicized than I thought.
You'd probably be disheartened to learn how looney the U.S. military and intelligence communitiy is, because we spend a lot of time trying to figure out what causes people to embrace extremist Islam. It was an amazing and unexpected development, when suicide bombers starting showing up in Iraq from around the Muslim world: Morocco, Somalia, Turkey, Pakistan. There were a number of studies and working groups put together to analyze the problem, both on stopping the flow into Iraq, and determining the source.
Why they choose to do it is fascinating, in a macabre way. I've certainly heard my share of terrorist backstory in interrogations, and in other settings. Their literature and propaganda is on the internet if you care to look for it. There's nothing random about their philosophy, and to a devout Muslim it makes perfect sense. Islamic extremism truly is a global tide that's rising from the grassroots.
At any rate, if you don't think that American foriegn policy is one of several contributing factors that empowers Islamic extremism, then you're sadly misinformed. You may find the idea of understanding how your enemies think to be un-American, since enemies are to be killed and not understood. That's your call. If you care more about winning the GWOT than being a good Republican who shies away from politically inconvenient terms, then you'll need to know your enemy as well.