no, you are wrong, it IS EXACTLY LIKE THAT
the japanese launched a surprise attack with no declaration of war that cost a crap ton of american lives
radical islamics launched a terrorist attack with no warning that cost a crap ton of american lives
there is a good guy, it is US
there is a bad guy, it is THEM
there is no confusion on this one, and tryng to play "but we are not perfect either" is a waste of electrons
no we are not perfect, but that does not take away from the FACT that we are the better, more honorable and more decent party in this struggle.
Good or bad...
What about the Japanese Americans that were put in concentration camps. Were they good or bad?
And actually, yes, there is confusion. You're just looking at the wrong timescale.
For example, suppose Iran was able to launch special ops in the US because the current US regime is not to their liking. They succeed in doing so, cause massive upheaval, tens or hundreds of thousands of dead, and as a bonus, you end up with a fundie regime. Incidentally, most of your family died. Iran doesn't even care that you know they did this, they're that arrogant.
Now, fast forward a couple of decades. There will be a festering hatred against Iran, right? Then someone comes along, builds a cause for waging a dirty war against Iran, and give you a chance to inflict major harm to the society that supported those actions, and which still looks down on you today. Would it be a terrible stretch of the imagination to argue that there would be many volunteers and that Iran had it coming to them? Would you think you were evil for striking back, or would you think that you are finally scoring one for the good guys? Or would you forgive and forget and try to just make the best of the ******** that Iran made of your country?
Now, switch Iran and the US, and you have exactly what happened. And instead of Iran you could pick a number of countries where the US bent the lawful government over a barrel because it was not in their best interest. Islam is just the propaganda vehicle which is used to get those people to do bad things.
If you look at this conflict only since 2001, because that was the first time that the
US got hit bad since WW2, then yes, I can see how you could argue that they are the bad guys and you are the good guys. If you look back over the last 50 or 60 years and look at how the US messed up the middle east and caused death and mayhem just for political gain, then I say... who threw the first punch?
What is happening today is bad, ok. But just saying you're the good and the other bad without any qualifications is just putting your fingers in your ears and singing lalalalala because you don't want to deal with complexity or accept the fact that the US is not entirely blameless. The extremist leader may hate the US for religious reasons. The majority however just hates the US for what it did to them and their kin. I am also not saying they are good and the US is bad.
However if the US kills tens of thousands for political gain, then it's only natural that someone is going to try and exact revenge. They're doing nothing that the US didn't do as well.