marine vs. ali's (round one)

okay, so after an exciting day of a whole lotta nothing, i came home to visitors at the house. they were old family friends from the great state of new mexico. man, i would love check it out sometime. anyway, so a little background before i tell the story. the father of this family is egyptian and the mom is american. i was told that she had intended to join the convent. i wonder what happened? anyway, they have two kids, a son and a daughter who are both muslim. i always wondered what it is like to grow up having parents of different faiths. i imagine that it must be difficult maintaining religious identity. ok, i should get to the point. so the son, a US marine, and my father were chit chatting today about the middle east. and of course, my father and his overly opinionated self (i wonder where i get it from?) kindly stated why he did not support the war in iraq. our friend, the marine, was not happy about that. and i thought it was extremely interesting because all he kept saying was that they needed to get saddam out of there. he was brutal, he was crazy, he was evil, and no one can deny that.

so when we asked about the state of iraq today, he said that they would all kill each other if we were not there. without getting into the nitty gritty of it all, i think many of us can agree that the US went into iraq and "ba7dillo el dinya," which basically means they messed things up. apparently, according to him, none of us can completely understand what it is like since we have not been there. how did i know he was gonna play that card. makes me wonder how he would explain the rapes and the current infrastrucure which includes the complete loss of political and social order. with that said, WHY does this kid think that the US has helped? and the only thing that i could think of was that he was trying to justify his role in the iraq. do not get me wrong, i am not questioning his intentions. i honestly think that he believes that he was there to make it a better place for the iraqi citizens and that in some way he has. but like any job, we need to be able to rationally reflect on what we did and whether what we are doing is the right thing to do. and it is difficult to for one to admit when he or she is wrong. i think that is why people try sooooo hard to justify their actions especially when it resulted in harm. hmmm.... i also wanted to ask another question. how did he feel about attacking a country filled with his muslim brothers and sisters? well, he is here for another week -maybe i can pick his brain a little more....