No one calls these attacks "blowback"

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35. guess you're right. we're saints and nothing we ever did could possibly have anything to do with it

i'm not into "blaming america" either, but i'm afraid to look at anything and everything.

nor am i afraid of soul-searching or self-examination for the purpose of self-improvement.

i'm american and i love america, but we all know our country has not been perfect. we get better by doing things like somehow abolishing slavery, somehow getting past the vote belonging only to men, and so on.

we don't get better by refusing to examine when and where we might have messed up.

yes, it's possible that terrorism might continue to exist no matter what we do. but that's a conclusion we can come to only after thoroughly examining all the facts and hypotheses and trying different things. we're not entitled to come to that conclusion because, hey, some of that might involve "blaming america" and therefore we have to put our fingers in our ears and refuse to consider it.