romantic occupation

If you see the coverage of US humiliating withdrawal from Iraq, you realize that it is portrayed in romantic terms.  See the coverage by the New York Times.  It is very much the way classical colonialists portrayed their connection to colonized lands in romantic terms.  Even the massacres and butchery committed by occupation troops is buried in article talking about the "misunderstood" country and about the confusion from war.  I think that what strikes people in the Middle East is not only US wars and bombs but also the unapologetic arrogance in which US bombs other countries.