The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. led to almost-universal sympathy for the United States. Citizens and leaders around the world expressed their grief over the three thousand lives that had been lost and anger at the terrorists who had destroyed America’s sense of security for seemingly no other reason than hatred of the United States. However, people from both ends of the political spectrum have questioned whether America was truly innocent or if its foreign policy helped cause the atrocity.

Left-wing political activist Noam Chomsky has asserted that America’s foreign policy has caused rancor in the Arab world, which has fostered terrorism against the United States. Arabs have been particularly upset by America’s support of UN sanctions against Iraq. Those sanctions, beginning in 1990 following Iraq’s invasion of...