A couple of days ago, Emperor Barack Obama warned that the pastor in Gainesville would be responsible for “serious violence in places like Pakistan or Afghanistan” if he held his Quran burning protest on the 9th anniversary of 9-11. Consider the hypocrisy and the arrogance it must take to with one hand claim the right to drop bombs on people, and with the other reprimand a man for merely being ignorant and misguided.

In fact, we can look to Obama’s first hand to see exactly why there is serious violence in that region. Our attempts at empire are wearing thin and sufficient generations of non-Americans have had a sufficient number of mothers, fathers, grandparents, brothers, sisters and cousins killed by a product of the American Empire.

The violence directed towards us and our legion, at home and abroad, is a result of our aggressive foreign policy over the last few decades. Remember, this is violence that has been ongoing for a few decades. It’s not as if Pakistanis and Afghans knew there would would be a Quran burning in 2010 and so decided to preemptively retaliate. No, there must’ve been some other reason.

Here is list from Jim Cox’s lewrockwell.com piece of what might be getting all those Muslims a little upset:

1. The combined British/American overthrow of the democratically elected head of government in Iran in 1953, replacing him with the hated Shah and his secret police who the U.S. trained to murder thousands of Iranians.

2. In 1987 the U.S. militarily supported Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi war with Iran.

3. In 1988 the U.S. ship Vincennes, stationed in the Persian Gulf, shot down a commercial jetliner, killing 290 Iranian civilians.

4. After the Gulf War, the U.S. led an embargo against Iraq, allowing no humanitarian or medical aid. The results, according to UN estimates: 10,000 Iraqi deaths per month with the toll including more than 300,000 children. Then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright when asked said it was “worth it.” Albright never retracted her statement nor was it ever repudiated by an American president.

5. In 1998 President Clinton bombed an aspirin factory in Sudan. A number of totally innocent civilians were killed.

6. European armies, rather than native peoples, drew many of the borders in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and southwest Asia.

7. The Saudi government, the Kuwaiti government, and the Afghani government are actively supported with foreign aid by the U.S. despite the fact that they routinely oppress their people.

8. The war in Iraq since 2003 that has resulted in a minimum of 97,000 civilian deaths as well as the displacement of more than a million civilians.

9. The war in Afghanistan since 2001 that has resulted in a minimum of 6,000 civilian deaths.

10. Predator strikes in Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan.

I’d like to throw in #11

Palestinian loss of land at the hands of Boobus Americanus

Palestinian loss of land from 1946 to 2000.

Well, at least we know exactly what infuriates these foreign people. Personally, I’d be pissed off at the Chinese if they invaded and occupied Maryland, killed thousands of Americans in the process, and installed a strongman dictator who oppressed Marylanders. But these silly Arabs are only upset when pastor Jones burns their holy book.

Such simpletons.

I suppose had the Quran burning gone through as scheduled, only then could we claim that we invited violence towards America by our actions. But until that happens, my argument is extraordinary to suggest.