[HoneyBadger]

One of the things I've read about Osama Bin Ladin is that he's spent a great deal of time and money making friends and helping people, to the point where a lot of people in the Middle East view him as something of a Robin Hood figure. He interacts with them, he helps them, he's one of them, and that's a big strength and power-base for him.

How much of that is the U.S. doing? How many of the actions that we've taken in the Middle East since the Gulf War started, that have put us in a really positive light? I'm sure a lot, but I'm worried about the blunt force and heavy handedness that's been employed. How hard are *we* trying to make friends with the "common people" in other countries? How much are we being viewed as "The Terrorist" over there?

I've read about how China is investing huge amounts of money in Africa, because it's one of the few places in the world that America and the European Union don't already have a lot going on in. Why don't we? There's incredible resources, incredible manpower, unstable governments, and we've got an African American running for office-and winning. It seems like something we should be doing, as a country, if only to make it more difficult for China.

The U.S. is real good at blowing stuff up and killing people in other countries, but we need to get better at making friends and doing business, world wide.