Bat,
The origin of this post is in devils advocacy and someone has to offer an alternate opinion to the bloodlust for revenge that is sweeping around the world. At present I feel that too many people are simply reacting to an event and not considering the root causes of the problem and attempting to address those underlying issues first.
While the attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon is a horrific act of terrorism, I also despise state sponsored terrorism and feel that too many people overlook the fact that many Western countries tacitly approve of such acts as long as it meets with their economic or political goals.
I'm not missing the overall picture but by using specific instances I'm trying to show that based on past history the US Government point of view and policy is not always right, or necessarily in the best interests of the people it is supposed to serve and protect.
There are several US supported programs that work fairly well, (the international space station springs to mind). We both agree that the "My enemy's enemy is my friend" was poorly conceived and Communism is being ground under by the economic basis of democracy. We agree that the US needs to redefine its foreign policy to stop the breeding grounds of dissent. The last point will take generations to work through and invading a county to extract a suspected criminal isn't going to help the situation at all.
There are several points that we don't agree on:
1) Support for a coalition against terrorism does not mean that those same governments support an invasion of another country to extract one suspected criminal.
2) I cannot see the difference between a car bomb killing people in Tel Aviv and a helicoptor gunship firing missiles to assasinate a suspected terrorist. I see both as an act of terror and do not support the policies of the PLO using violence or the Israeli Governments use of assasination.
As for the use of a nuke as a weapon of terror; Who would have thought that a terrorist faction would use aircraft as flying missiles to destroy buildings and kill thousands of people. If it can be thought of, then it can be done. I'm off to check the use-by dates on my canned food.
