by Larry Everest

About the author: Larry Everest is a correspondent for the Revolutionary Worker newspaper and the author of Behind the Poison Cloud: Union Carbide's Bhopal Massacre.

“Americans are asking, ‘Why do they hate us’"” President George W. Bush stated in his nationally televised call to war. His answer was that “they hate our freedoms; our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”

I’ve covered the Middle East for more than 20 years—traveling to Iran, Palestine, and Iraq to investigate, first-hand, the impact that U.S. actions have had on the people in the region. I came away with a totally different understanding than this myth of “freedoms” told by...