@tfb @pfx National governments and their people are not one and the same, but it's also true that people have some responsibility in what their govts do. It's the US govt that destabilizes the Middle East and murders civilians, but US citizens are also partly culpable because the govts do these things knowing their citizens wouldn't care (or in this case, might actually see this as a positive and vote for you). Some charity organization from the US might give aid to Afghanistan (analogous to the trade unionists), but that doesn't wipe away the collective guilt they've accumulated.