Aside from the old saying that "Everyone hates No. 1" and the fact that no populatiion likes foreign troops stationed on their soil (remember the American Revolution?), I would like to offer a possible explanation to your front page story "Questioning U.S. policy as Arab violence continues."

I would suggest that America is guided by a disfunctional Congress under the auspices of the U.S. military industrial complex using the shock doctrine as advanced by Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine -- The Rise of Disaster Capitolism" as their guideline.

Our military drones and droids remind me of the "Star Wars" empire and I would have liked to ask ex-president Ronald Reagan "who's the evil empire now?"

Ronald E. Mount

Bellingham