Gritty desert sand blowing, tan brick fading in the harsh sun, Arabic letters sprawling across signs and banners, women winding through streets wearing the hijab. Old cars honking as they make their way through traffic, long beards waving in a breeze, what do you see? Improvised explosive devices buried by roads? AK-47s with half-empty magazines? Terrorists?

You are in Iraq, but you probably guessed that before I told you. Imagery commands strong associations, and sometimes those associations help us make sense of the world and predict events. But make no mistake, those associations can just as easily lead us to misguided conclusions. You might think of terrorism when you see a Muslim, or when images show up in the paper of a far-off Arab land, even if you don't think that individual is a terorist. I want you to challenge those assumptions and look inward. Even the American government, under an objective definition, can be a terrorist.

Joshua S. Goldstein, professor of political science at American University in Washington, D.C., and Jon C. Pevehouse, with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, define terrorism in their 2006 edition of International Relations as “political violence that targets civilians deliberately and indiscriminately.” By that definition, America commits terrorism, too.

For an example, look no further than the United States’s bombing of Afghanistan in ironic retaliation for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. As Noam Chomsky, prolific political author and professor of linguistics at MIT, explained in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, George W. Bush on Oct. 12, 2001, “announced to the Afghan people that we will continue to bomb you, unless your leadership turns over to us the people whom we suspect of carrying out crimes.” He didn't show a shred of evidence about crimes they might have committed. Then the U.S. bombs started dropping.

What about the American crimes? Professor Marc W. Herold from the Whittemore School of Business & Economics estimates that the U.S. air war on Afghanistan killed more than 3,000 Afghani civilians and psychologically traumatized many more. His explanation? “The apparent willingness of U.S. military strategists to fire missiles into and drop bombs upon, heavily populated areas of Afghanistan.”

Understandably incensed by the atrocious terrorism in New York only a month prior, it seems the American public turned a blind eye to what Noam cites as a “textbook illustration of international terrorism by the U.S.’s official definition.” However, I will be the first to recognize that one argument does not the debate make. For brevity’s sake let me direct the reader to further examples. I simply suggest the American public pull the American-flag-colored wool off their eyes and recognize the hypocrisy before them. Read more of the evidence and debate me. I welcome it.

Senseless fear does no good. As Chomsky once famously said, “Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.” I ask that each of us stop lying complicity by while the powers you vote for perpetrate terrorist violence. Challenge assumptions and examine the facts because sometimes terrorists wear a suit.

In The Fray Contributor