Zero Dark Thirty - Standing with Riverbend

Though I understand the typical American point of view from being an American and seeing first hand the way the 9/11 attacks, and other forms of terrorist acts have shaped the perspective of Americans in regards to the war and their attitudes of distrust towards people of the Middle East, I cannot say that I fully agree with them. Reason being, is that it is not right to make the whole of a group responsible for the actions of a few, especially when those few are extremist and are using a religion of love and peace as a propaganda to kill others under false religious context. In Zero Dark Thirty, especially the ending scenes where the SEALs are searching the house for Bin Laden and killing the men and women in those homes in such a nonchalant manner, I was disturbed on a level. I understand fully the mission and of course the position the SEALs are put in as far as life or death but the way in which these people, other than the children, and a few of the women, thank God, were executed reminded me of the hate that Kate started to acquire during the latter part of the novel, Sand Queen. These scenes from the movie had me reflect on the blog postings of Riverbend, in which she was desperately and frustratingly trying to convey the level of which the Americans had stopped viewing her and the people of Iraq as human. Instead Americans, both civilian and soldiers, have dehumanized people of the Middle Eastern region as third world citizens, as enemies, and labeled them all as terrorists all the while forgetting just how advanced, civilized, and normal this region of the world was before the occupation by Americans and the resulting war. Moreover, what is necessary to understand about this situation that has affected more so the region of the Middle East and the peoples of this region through destruction and displacement is the fact that, we, Americans have plagued much of this region in pain. As much as Americans want to lobby behind these Islamaphobic views and cast the people of this region with the stereotype of all being terrorists, we forget our own stake in this war.Though we may be told through media outlets that the policy of the American government is to help rebuild and bring "civilization" to this part of the world we have done more harm in so many more ways to these people socially, economically, and politically.