No kidding lmao. That’s my point. But even with how bad a reputation that war has, growing up in America I seemed to learn points that demonized the resistance, painting their tactics as evil terrorism, their government as corrupt terrorist-leaders, their civilians all implicated as terrorist fighters, etc
Indeed, all of that is part of the formula of which you speak. It is, in my mind, all the more reason to take with distrust anything any nation state says about its needs, goals, and “self defense.”
Palestine, for instance, is an invaded nation. If one can claim Ukraine deserves to defend itself, one has to also claim Palestine has the same rights.
But… marketing and prop/agitprop makes one believe otherwise.
Heck, Laos wasn’t ever involved as a “bad actor” yet ended up the most bombed country in the history of the world. You can thank Kissinger for that.
In short: America was the bad guy.