The idea behind the CIA’s funding was to take advantage of the concept of fundamentalist Jihad — most commonly understood by Americans as holy war — and use the fundamentalists’ movement against the Soviets.

In a 1999 Foreign Affairs article, journalist Ahmed Rashid wrote, “…some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 different Islamic countries joined Afghanistan’s fight between 1982 and 1992.”

The movement has spread, and the U.S. war on terror has turned into a global pseudo-Vietnam. Directly following the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan.

The war originally was “sold” to the American people as an effort to capture or kill bin Laden, as well as to destroy the terrorist organization al-Qaida and any other fringe terrorist organizations.

It was clear after going years without finding bin Laden, we were fighting a guerilla war. The suicide bombings resembled some of the strategies used by the Vietcong, the enemy during the Vietnam War, the only war America has ever lost — so far.

The war in Afghanistan was the first stop for America in the Middle East during the presidency of George W. Bush. Soon after, we invaded Iraq using false intelligence reports that hinted at an Iraqi nuclear weapons program.

Irve Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a senior member of the Bush Administration, was forced to step down and soon the Americans realized a mistake was made.

At present, the U.S. has troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and has been fighting a shadow war with drones in Pakistan.

With more fundamentalists springing up every day, and more countries becoming breeding grounds for these fundamentalists, how long before we’re fighting shadow wars in other countries? How long can this self-perpetuating cycle continue?

In the U.S. these wars have created something called “Islamophobia.” Take the recent mosque fiasco in Manhattan or Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., who threatened to burn the Quran on 9/11 and changed his mind only after a call from the White House.

The rise of American ethnocentricity and our conceptions of the Middle East are perpetuating the issues at hand further.

Americans need to understand cultural relativity. We need to make an effort to educate ourselves about the “enemies” we face as well as who the real “enemies” are.

Our enemy is not the Muslim religion; it is a small portion of that religion spread across many countries. We need to embrace the Muslim religion and not automatically dismiss it because of the fringe militant groups our government is fighting.

The war in Iraq was said to be a war for oil; a motive that makes sense from a capitalist nation as powerful as the U.S.

Whatever the cause for these wars, whatever the “enemy” does, our job as American citizens is to educate ourselves about the issues at hand.

We cannot be a part of the problem, perpetuating ignorance and violence globally. We need to take a stand and call, as a people, for a forum of understanding.

We must call upon our government to look into the best way for putting an end to these wars in a way that doesn’t involve wiping out countries full of innocent individuals.

This has to be a job for the American people. It’s about time people such as Jones stop getting media attention and voices like those of Martin Luther King Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi begin to appear in America.

Just as Islam receives bad press here, America gets a large amount of hate through other countries’ media outlets. We, as the citizens of this country, need to use our intelligence, love and peaceful nature to demonstrate our collective attitude is changing.

Doing that could have much more of an effect than the route we have chosen thus far.

Eoin Nordman is a State News guest columnist. Reach him at nordmane@msu.edu.