God Protect us from us

I am certainly no expert on ISIS, Islam, the Middle East or any of that. But I surely can empathize with the hurt and rage of the Muslim people in Iraq and Afghanistan who have been invaded and occupied by America over the past dozen years, subject to constant collateral damage from drone strikes, bombing, strafing, and mercy killings of injured Iraqis by allied soldiers.

If America were occupied by a foreign power dictating a new form of government and completely overturning our cultural to better reflect those of our occupiers, I too might become very militant if I felt marginalized and humiliated.

If I were a Muslim in any other country in the Middle East, I think I would resent what appears to be a drunken giant destructively crashing around my neighborhood where they did not belong. I would wonder when they would be coming into my neighborhood, taking over my city council, my neighborhood watch, and my government.

As a matter of fact, as an American, I am frightened for all of us given what appears to be out-of-control police brutality and a corrupt political and criminal justice system that looks the other way regarding crimes of Wall Street, bankers, judges, the very wealthy, as well as those of the police. The parameters of our freedom and privacy are shrinking at an alarming rate.  There is very little time left to reverse the oligarchic fascism of corporate/government collusion. God protect us from our failure to protect ourselves from the descending darkness.