As I mulled through the opinion page of Monday’s Badger Herald, I was disappointed and disgusted by the extent of some UW students’ oversimplification of reality, and their ignorance of our own history has led them to call for blood.

Make no mistake about it, the attacks of a couple weeks ago were a great national and international tragedy. But tearing up the Middle East, murdering every brown-skinned person in sight, is not going solve anything. The U.S. government is, without a doubt, one of the most genocidal and murderous political entities of the 20th century. In the name of ruthless capitalism and neo-colonialism, our government has murdered over 500,000 Iraqi children, thousands of Palestineans, and many more throughout the world in places like Latin America and East Timor.

Brian Marquardt wrote in his letter that, “Those [protesters] are using the rights defended by our military during wars.” What could be further from the truth? Not since World War II has the United States ever been involved in military activity defending our freedoms and liberties. Rather, they have defended a racist, imperialistic American hegemony which, believe it or not, is greatly resented by nearly every other country and their peoples around the world.

So before you preach at us about the evil terrorists, why don’t you try getting your facts straight and face up to the reality that our leaders are war criminals just as much as people like Hitler, Stalin and other monsters of the 20th century.

Adam Goldstein, UW senior