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2. "Brought to justice". That's a euphamism for murder. Do you really think that we're going to all the trouble to put these clowns on trial? Only if they're stupid enough to be taken alive. And I'm willing to bet the first 5,000 or so terrorists will be killed "gratis". In the black humor of the military, bombs, missiles and even close support infantry weapons will carry the names of New York victims as part of "pay back time". Some of you may be old enough to remember the Palestinian terrorist attack on the Israel atheletes at the 1976 Munich Olympics. The Israeli special forces hunted down and murdered every single one of the terrorists. There were no trials.

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First rant item: Ten days after probably the most horrifying event that I've seen in my sheltered and pampered life (so far), I must say that I am still struggling with a wide range of emotions, including deep grief, sadness, fear, and anger. But, damn it all, I must also say that the thing that depresses me most is reading the types of comments and petty nonsense that has reared its ugly head on this and other message boards. People from all over the world (not just Americans) are suffering enormous pain and fear and are still searching for loved ones but idle message board pundits obsessively speculate on how past policies (all the way back to slavery) of the U.S. government caused this horror and that we got what we deserved. Blaming the victims for happened to them is the classic response of those who lack empathy and have some bizarre, one-sided axe to grind that ignores the full range of facts, simply because some of those facts contradict their political agenda (and this has been true of liberals and conservatives throughout history). Yes, (sigh) I agree that U.S. foreign policy has been a disaster at times in our history (I say this before I have to read the same obnoxious and worn-out arguments over and over that will be posted in response to this), but this country has also worked tirelessly to help those who need help (to the tune of billions and billions of dollars of foreign aid, assistance, etc.). We intervened in Kosovo to protect the Muslim minorities and force out a criminal dictator (I guess bin Laden doesn't care about those Muslims). We sent troops into Sudan strictly for humanitarian purposes to help the starving population in that benighted country and had to watch our servicemen's bodies get dragged through the street. We've tried and tried and tried to forge a lasting peace in the Middle East, only to see it destroyed by fanaticism. One fact that really surprised me: Bill Clinton met more times with Yasser Arafat than any other foreign leader during his eight years in office, but when a fair and acceptable peace and land agreement was almost reached between Israel and the Palestinians, the fanatics in the latter group responded with waves of terror and suicide bombings, which resulted in similar responses from the Israelis and the election of an Israeli leader who is much less interested in peace. When your nation is an economic “superpower, creating an appropriate foreign policy is a complicated and delicate balancing act that must be flexible if you wish to avoid isolationism and want to advance democratic ideals across the world. Since many other countries have no interest in embracing democratic ideals, this approach may piss some of them off. Perhaps we haven't always been on the “right” side in conflicts and have supported crass dictators who waged their own campaigns of terror; this was due primarily to our long cold war aversion to anything communist and/or supported by the former Soviets. This inability to be “perfect” at all times in our foreign affairs in no way, shape or form justifies acts of terrifying mass murder that have committed by those that hate us simply because we stand in the way of their desire to implement a reign of fear across the globe.

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