Another tragedy, with the United States to blame.

Tuesday evening, a bomb went off in a Planet Hollywood restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa.

The man who claimed responsibility for the bomb said he acted in retaliation against the U.S. bombings in Sudan and Afghanistan.

The hate is spreading.

We must not retaliate, however. If we attack in response, the bombings will increase exponentially.

We cannot lower ourselves to a terrorist level, but it seems that is exactly what we have done. Even if we have eliminated our targets by bombing, we have also killed innocent people.

At least one woman died in yesterday’s bombing — a woman who was probably only guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Her death is on every U.S. citizen’s conscience, or if it’s not, it should be.

The man who orchestrated the bombing in South Africa said he acted for Muslims Against Global Oppression, and oppression seems to be a fitting description for the action we have taken.

We have to realize that we cannot keep everyone under our giant capitalist thumbs.

The international conflicts started way back in the 1700s, in the early stages of U.S. government, when we tried to “civilize” everyone and convert them to Christianity. We should have left well enough alone.

The attack on Planet Hollywood, planned or not, said a lot. We install Disney World theme parks and McDonald’s and Planet Hollywood restaurants all over, but in reality, people don’t want to replace their cultures with ours.

We seem eager to get out our big guns to show the world, but it takes more strength to resist the temptation to fight back than to drop a bomb.

Just because the people getting killed may possess a different skin color and live far away from here doesn’t mean their lives aren’t as important as U.S. citizens’. If we are going to kill anyone, it better be the last possible option.

We need to stop this childish exchange of violence.