opinionated anger

Disclaimer: The following opinions do not reflect the opinion of the US Army or the government.

With that said, I'd like to start. I don't believe the conspiracy theorists, but I'm not as naive the rest of the US. I don't agree with whoever actually planned and ordered the attacks five years ago on the World Trade Center. Their actions, however heinous, were not without cause or justification. I do believe that 9/11 was a bit much, but after what the US has done to the world I can't say that I wasn't excepting no sort of retaliation.

It's easy for me to see their point of view. Let's get historical for a second. During the 1970's the Cold War was still going on, the US and Soviet Union were fighting a political battle than spanned continents and involved millions of people. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the US supplied the Afghans with weapons, supplies, and training. All of this was done relatively cheaply, because not to belittle the Afghans but their money was worthless. Yet we provided thousands of rifles, food, and Special Forces operators spent years training the Afghans in the finer points of guerilla warfare. All this was given with the promise of (basically) fight off the Soviets and we'll help you build your nation into a powerful one. Yet here we are, it's 30-something years later and the population is still dirt poor. What happened? The same thing that always happens, a new government took power and decided that these promises were too costly for us to keep. Nobody told the Afghanis this, no one even told the operators this and they departed with the mindset that they'll be back.

Still not seeing how they could be angry about it? OK, here's an analogy I use.

Have you ever gotten angry at a customer service person? For whatever reason? Like you called the store to see if they have someone you need, they say yes and you drive down to get it and it's not there? You even talked to the same person you did on the phone. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T HAVE IT ANYMORE? I JUST CALLED 10 MINUTES AGO AND YOU SAID YOU HAD IT! Can you imagine yourself saying that? It's their fault right? Not the store's fault, or someone else that works there, but that one person that you talked to. Right? Wrong. Like the bumper sticker says, "Shit Happens." There's a million different plausible reasons why it's gone, but only one reason why it would be that person's fault.
Or how about when you go back to return something and the sales clerk needs to call over a manager to just complete the transaction? I mean, how difficult is it to open the register, reach in and grab $25.92? Does it really take a manager to do this? No, not really, but that's the way it's going now isn't it? Did you know that executive board of the store is implementing a new policy to track the returns of each store for each product? NO? Well, that lowly sales clerk probably didn't either. And the register doesn't know either, the stupid computer just knows that you need a certain validation code to complete the return. And now you're yelling at the clerk, "JUST OPEN THE STUPID DRAWER AND PULL MY MONEY OUT!" Hey, it's not the clerk's fault but that's where you angry lies.
Of course in these scenarios you're only angry for a few minutes, maybe a day at the most; certainly not 30 years from now. And even if you were, I'd say it would be a little much if you went into the clerk's house in a few years and killed off their entire family and the neighbors (just for good measure) for making you want for your money or store credit.
Again, I'm not belittling the situation in Afghanistan. The promise we made was huge, and we didn't even help them out a little when it came to that promise. Sure we gave them guns, but that won't feed a family, or heal a sick child. That's what they need, not more guns. It would've helped years ago, but now it's the only way they know how to live. That gun can help you get food for your family, if you kill a farmer and take all of his stuff. Or medicine when you shoot your way in to a hospital.
So before you get angry at someone, ask yourself if it really is their fault. If it is, let'em have it! If not, step back, take a deep breath and calm down. Otherwise, in a few years you could find yourself outside of his/her house waiting to kill them just because you got a little mad over something stupid.