In watching 60 minutes this past Sunday, one was given a glimpse into the Islamic "Narrative" espoused by Muslims the world over, believing the West is out to destroy their religion and Jihad is the correct response, which is wrong, regrettable and and tragic.
Former U.S. President George W. Bush was mentioned by Muslims in the interview, as one that made the Islamic world firmly believe, the West is out to destroy Islam, via the war in Iraq.
As a Christian, I clearly do not share the same religious beliefs as Muslims. However, I do not wish death and destruction upon Muslims.
The George W. Bush years did America and the West a great deal of damage that may never be repaired in this lifetime. It opened the institution that is the U.S. Presidency, to a great window of shame, it had never known before.
The Clinton years were marred by his infidelities and the accompanying untruths, the most notable, the Monica Lewinsky scandal. However, it did not destroy the stature and standing of the U.S. Presidency. His deeds were viewed as personal, moral failures within his marriage to former First Lady, Hillary Clinton.
Later, during the Bush years, Americans sported bumper stickers that stated, "When Clinton lied, nobody died." This is true, as it alluded to Bush's illegal war, he lied to the nation and world to wage, which cost many Muslim civilians and Western soldiers their lives.
Bush deliberately deceived the world about a terrible war, claiming it was to rid Iraq of dangerous Weapons of Mass Destruction, he knew no longer existed. The true intent of the war was to steal untold trillions in Iraq oil.
Bush later stated in a well publicized interview that he believed the oil in Iraq would pay for the cost of the war. However, that oil/money was not his to take.
Bush, former Vice President, Dick Cheney and advisor, Karl Rove, reduced the U.S. Presidency to common thievery, grand theft larceny and murder, to pillage the national heritage of the Iraqi people - oil.
The world was made less safe as well, as Muslims began to wage Jihad against the West and fight back against Western soldiers and civilians in acts of terrorism in other nations.
Thanks to Bush and co, what the world ended up with was the death of 1 million Muslim civilians in Iraq and surrounding areas, 10,000 U.S. and U.K. soldiers gone, hundreds of Western civilians (America, Britain and Spain) killed in acts of terrorism and a new, heighten hatred for the West that did not exist before at this raging intensity.
It was a terrible turn of events, all in the name of money in the form of oil, birthed by the Bush Administration.