Said's Orientalism

Towards the beginning of the excerpt from Edward Said's Orientalism it reads "The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe's greatest and richest and oldest colonies , the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most reoccurring images of the Other. In addition, the Orient has helped to define Europe (or the West) us its contrasting image, idea personality experience." Edward Said defends Orientalism as a rich source of culture and other beneficial aspects of Western society. It is not really fair to defend Orientalism as completely good like Said does because it often was harmful to the people on the other end of it. It was often just used as an excuse to justifiably invade another country.