I wrote this knowing that everyone has cast their vote but not knowing who the winner would be. In this brief moment of uncertainty where I can’t persuade anyone to vote one way or the other and I also don’t know the results, I would like to talk in a nonpartisan manner about terrorism.

Let me start by saying that I do not know many things. However, I do know that if a soldier of any nationality walked down my street uninvited and, in broad daylight, put a bullet in the head of my mother or father while firing carelessly at a “perceived” threat, I would consider that person a terrorist. More than that, I would instantaneously, without second thought, hate the country from which that soldier came. And my hatred would be even greater if that soldier left my loved one dead in a pool of their own blood without even the slightest bit of visible remorse or apology. I might even be willing to die to avenge their deaths.

As you can see, I believe that if innocent civilians suffer at the hands of our government, we are no better than the terrorists we seek to kill. If you do not believe that this kind of activity happens on a day-to-day basis in the countries we invade, I beg you to turn on PBS or the BBC, as they present two-sided “on location” reporting, in contrast to the fluff you’ll get from Fox News or other incompetent American news sources.

As more than half of us cast our ballots based heavily on the War on Terror, I am reminded that with most of the problems facing America today, we choose Tylenol to treat the symptoms instead of a better diet to treat the disease. We can bomb Iraq and Afghanistan and it will feel good, but it does not stop our hypocrisy or the anti-American sentiment that breeds terrorists. (It actually creates it.)

So what can we do? The average American’s need to feel powerful, patriotic and proud has blinded him from the fact that the government that he supports is not supporting him. We are contemptuously isolating ourselves from the rest of the world, whether they are reasonable or not.

International policing must be an international effort if there is to be any kind of international peace. If an international body is failing to function, America needs to get tough on that international body instead of “taking the law into our own hands.” Both our allies and enemies have said that this defiant action is creating more problems for us than it has solved.

I realize that saying that the American people are part of the problem is a very unpopular opinion. Dick Cheney said that the suggestion that “the problem is not with the people who are attacking us, [but that] the problem is with us, is an example of left-wing foolishness that certainly is not appropriate.” I am not foolish and I am not liberal (except on the environment), but I do think the average American’s attitude is a part of the problem.

The government gets almost 100 percent of its authority from its people, and as long as we support hatred, that hatred will be expressed through our government and will most certainly come back to us. One needs not be a pacifist to understand the fact that killing innocent people doesn’t prevent the killing of innocent people.

I beg of everyone to step out of their American shoes and to realize that we are different only in wealth and geography from the people we hate. They are fighting for freedom. We are fighting for freedom. They are fighting against injustice. We are fighting against injustice. Their Muslim religious zeal is no different than our Christian religious zeal. There will only be peace when we can see through our pride and get tough on the world in ways that do not perpetuate the violence which is so prevalent today.

Finally, people should make an effort to go and actually read the full text of articles released by our government (like the Patriot Act and the Duelfer Report) and our enemies (Osama’s tapes-recent and old), before using them in an argument. You will find our enemies know us better than we know ourselves. This makes it truly a sad day for America, no matter the outcome of this election.

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