to Another American,good to hear from you again, let's disagree some more.
Yes the terrorists have acted in accordance with their ideals, and in defence of their beliefs. But I will go out on a limb here and say that their ideals and beliefs are wrong wrong wrong. I feel confident right down to the tips of my toes that they are •••••• up, and the overwhelming support of the international community (including Islamic states) has me thinking that I may be on to something here. Please don't get me wrong, I know that you must also believe that they are •••••• up, but perhaps you are too understanding. Everybody acts according to what they believe to be the truth, whether that truth is higher ideals, or greed or psychosis. It does not matter, there is still right and wrong. e.g. bombing of Afghani civilians-wrong, going in and taking out Taliban and Bin-Laden- right, if possibly unpalatable to US public (those body bags will keep coming ). Don't forget, it wouldn't just be us, Brits and others would come (don't bet on the French, remember WW2).
OK, maybe drifting off the point here i.e. morality and US foreign policy. There is a line drawn in the sand, and while we have sometimes crossed that line it has been to square up to communism worldwide. Does this make it right. Well,kinda. Yeah. And no. You won't get any argument from me on some of the facts concerning various blunders, but but but, we were facing a truly terrifying prospect, the eradication of freedom no less. If we had withdrawn from the dirty world of foreign policy where would the world be right now ? Clue : don't just talk of US creating Taliban and Bin Laden. Soviets come on down ! invasion, slaughter, bombing, - it's all there. Without our help, Soviets would have won, and would they have stopped there ? So now we are paying the price of helping, once again. I can see your eyebrows raised at the word "helping", but we helped them win. No question.
I firmly believe that the ideals embedded in the American psyche, the ideals of our founding fathers , are the ideals that all men aspire to, the size of our Islamic community bears some testament to this belief. Have the oppressed of the former Eastern Bloc voted Communism back in, even though they are in a bad way ? NO. (well maybe a few ex-party officials for lack of competition, but communism ? NO). Thus I will stand behind US defence of national interests, as those interests are interwoven with all true democratic states. Peace and prosperity, and stability. The time has come for us to use our power, not indiscriminately, but as a scalpel. we have to eradicate those responsible for 11sept01, and we must not spare those who have given them refuge, namely the Taliban. Is our nation prepared to sacrifice young men and women to this end ? Is there an alternative ? (and no, nuking 'em is not an alternative, nor raining missiles down on their starving heads ) Recent American beliefs that victory in the battlefield can be achieved like winning a videogame are at best misleading, and in reality total BS. Especially in Afghanistan. What are we prepared to do ?
keep on rockin'in the free world.
God Bless America.
p.s. don' like wolly liberals or ranting republicans. Common Sense ! used to be an American quality. Bring it back.

to USpolice, icannot agree that we gave Saddam our support in gassing the Kurds. He may have believed that he had the green light because we supported his regime, but he was mistaken. are you saying that we told him not to worry and just go right ahead and do it ? I think not. He went ahead with genocide of his own accord.

This is a reply to: chanofsingapore ( - 203.92.84.186) on Monday, September 17, 2001 - 03:10 am: In the list you provided, you have even mentioned a few polictical parties of Pakistan. It is eveident that you are an Indian who is extremely worried why Paksiatn is in the lime light. While mentioning the deaths of 50,000 indians you forgot that there are more than 70,000 deaths in Kashmir alone due to the action of the Indian armed forces. They were also innocent people just like the ones killed in the trade center. Please keep your local polictics out of this issue. As the Pakistani President said in his speech, " LAY OFF "

To all whom have sufferd in this terrible tragedy, my heart goes out to you all with the deepest of sympathy and may those poor souls that were taken from us R.I.P God Bless You All.
And
GOD BLESS AMERICA.

GOODBYE

Mrs NM.Kimber of Portsmouth ( ENGLAND )

I have a web site for loss and grief. I developed this site when I lost my sister to cancer. This is an eMail site. I find writing to my deceased loved one(s) helps. Feel free to use this site for messages to the ones who have lost their lives in this horrific tragedy and other deaths.

http://www.dearheaven.com

I am hoping you will publish this message for others to see.

Thank you,
Katrinka Lawson
San Antonio, Tx

To find out more about the person(s) who may have caused this heinous crime, check out my new web site:

http://wanted-osamabinladen.netfirms.com

This site is new and is being continuously updated.

Thank you
Katrinka Lawson

If you would like to write to the people who caused this monsterous, heinous crime..and died, you may write to them at:

http://www.dearhell.com

I had a very dear friend question my faith in God right after
the terrorist attack on America. Her question was simply put,
"Where is your God today?"

She was very hurt, as all Americans were, so I tried not to
react defensively. Since that moment I have prayed and grieved
over the disastrous events. However, I believe I have the answer.
I know where my God was the morning of September 11, 2001!
He was very busy.

First of all, he was trying to discourage anyone from taking this
flight. Those four flights together held over 1000 passengers and
there was only 266 aboard.

He was on 4 commercial flights giving terrified passengers the
ability to stay calm. Not one of the family members who was
called by a loved one on one of the high-jacked planes said that
passengers were screaming in the background. On one of the
flights he was giving strength to passengers to try to overtake
the high-jackers.

He was busy trying to create obstacles for employees at the
World Trade Center. After all only around 20,000 were at the
towers when the first jet hit. Since the buildings hold over
50,000 workers, this was a miracle in itself. How many of the
people who were employed at the WTC told the media that
they were late for work or they had traffic delays.

He was holding up two 110 story buildings so that 2/3 of the
workers could get out. I was so amazed that the top of the
towers didn't topple when the jets impacted.

Although this is without a doubt the worst thing I have seen in
my life, I can see God's miracles in every bit of it. I can't
imagine going through such a difficult time and not believing in
God. Life would be hopeless.

We are shocked and saddened at last weeks events. These actions are just beyond belief but sadly thousands of innocent people lost their lives as a result of these horrific actions. What a terrible cost! We just feel for all the families that are still waiting for news of their loved ones or those, who lost friends or family-members. Lets just hope that they find the individuals responsible and that we can work hard as a world to ensure this never happens again. We would like to express our deep sympathy and our condolences to the American people!

All the best

Bernd and Carmela Klemm
from Gersthofen, Germany

I'm a bit worried about reprisals and repercussions where I live in England when the allied attack on terrorism begins.
We've had race riots in the north of England this June in the towns of Oldham, Bradford and Burnley.
The politically correct media conveniently blame right wing white racists for inflaming the situation, the truth is, that the huge muslim communities responded to minor tat for tat arguments by severe rioting, this included burning down pubs, throwing petrol bombs at police and even 'hit and run' drive bys.
It was a miracle no-one was killed.
The muslims blame everyone but themselves for this anarchy. I'm sorry to say that in certain places the immaculately observed minute’s silence was ignored completely, according to the press the factory's etc. involved put finances before compassion and the workers will to observe it.
The truth - the places involved have large muslim populations and they had no wish to observe it.
What I'd like to say is I hope that when the response begins no innocent lives are lost, but also that if we are gullable enough to think that muslims are all peace loving really and it was just a few extremists then we are all in for a big shock. Despite what the media like to feed us on in England, those of us that live and work near these people know what they are like, they have no wish to intigrate into our culture, they want to dominate it.

To Justthefacts,
It's quite decent of you to reply, as I think our disagreement is fundamental enough for many to benefit from the civil debate of these issues.

Although I think that there are many in the world who think that even Islamic fundamentalist, within reason, deserve some amount of self determination, it was not their or our ideals that were in question, as much as our hippocracy in not letting some exercise our ideals in their states. When we replace dictatorships with dictatorships we lose moral ground. Especially where it is not necessary. But when we replace elected governments with dictatorships, we in your words, look "•••••• up" and badly stain our leadership with immorrality. I know we helped them win, and that winning is important to many of us, but even in, the win at all cost NCAA, there are rules that are not to be breached. Maybe what we now need, in our hour of ascendancy, are rules that can guide us to a middle ground, where we can win and still have some moral high ground to stand on.

When you say that you believe the ideals of the terrorist were wrong that's your opinion. And it's seems to me, a good one. But it seems that what the world, as a whole, is truly disturbed with are the "actions" of these people. To be honest, advocating the killing of all Americans and those in their proximity, is reprehensible and an absolute wrong. But to agitate for the end to the USA and it's influence is their right. As many in the US and around the world have done for a long time. It comes under the heading, in America, of constitutional rights.

When I mentioned above about some of our actions being unnecessary , I particularly had Afghanistan in mind. Imagine if you will if we had, instead of arming the Mujahadeen, helped to fortify the borders of Pakistan and give them assistance in preventing an incursion. Oh, we had already done that. Then we could have made overtures to Iran reassuring them of our assistance in case of an invasion. Maybe this was done? I any case, with the technology we then had, and with the amassing of the US fleet in the Indian Ocean, it seems impossible that the soviets could have pulled a surprise invasion and less likely it would have been a success. Being that this was the first incursion by an ailing, low tech Soviet army in decades made it even less likely. So why the paranoic actions? Because of one unofficial principle that we shared with the CCCP - Hegemony. Our interests at any cost.

On mentioning all those coming to America as proof of our primacy in ideals, I would really beg to differ. Especially in the case of the many Muslims who immigrated. I think many consider our seperation of church and state as a bit much as they are a stricter religious order. I'm sure there are many other areas where they, and others, disagree. So what is bringing so many to our shores? I think you know the phrase, so don't take it personally - "It's the economy stupid". The same reason people in Asia are clammoring for space in Singapore. This is what brought many in the ancient world to the metropolises of the Meditarrean. It's also that we have much more space as our immigration policies indicate. There are many who would, just as gladly, go to Europe. They would go where ever there is the greatest chance of them becoming wealthy. It also helps that we might have the most diverse and "kick ass" weather of any developed nation. In that respect, we have something for everyone.

Ultimately, I think that this situation will not be cured by military/police action alone. Rather, it will have to be fought with foreign policy adjustments as well. There are many, many "freedom fighters", fundamentalist and the like, who are out there sitting on the fence. Waiting to go either way, depending on our handling of this situation. That justice must be done is apparent, but let it be justice. Case in point is the Mcveigh situation. Well handled and resolved. A different situation, but still almost the present situation in a microcosm. The ideals used in resolution are quite transferable.

P.S. I think you meant woolly liberals. In that case I can only inform you that I'm quite follicularly challenged or as my B-ball homies(The Death Squad) like to say, shiny. And in the case of the Kurdish question, you are either naive or recalcitrant but Uspolice will have his say on this, I suspect.

May the lord look onto you all and give you strength through this tragic part of your lives. The day i found out was totally heartbreaking, i realize how lucky i am to be able to watch my kids and husband asleep in bed and realize the pain and heartbreak you all must be going through, not knowing. May you always believe that no matter what sorrow or pain you are going through there is always someone their just to give you that little bit of TLC that is always needed at times like these. I hope the world comes to terms with it's major loss of all those innocent souls in the WTC, Pentagon and the Aeroplanes, but we will never forget who they were and how brave they were, when staring terrorism in the face. May I wish you all of gods blessings to you, your children, your mothers, fathers & friends. May I send my greatest thanks to all the firefighters, police, aid workers, red cross and the many many more voulenteers who are out there day in day out, looking for that little glimmer of hope.

May God Bless Each And Everyone, Who Is Helping Those Who Need The Help To Greive.

Lots of Love From Scotland
We All Send Our Love
The McAllister Family

to Another American
your solution to the problem posed by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan does seem plausible and appealing, and it is unfortunate that it can be only hindsight. Another "sight" that is sometimes missing from US foreign policy is foresight. I would never seek to deny this, but that was never my point. I have always stood behind our decisions (not Iran/Contra ) because of the need to block communism at every possible turn. The defeat of communism could not have been achieved militarily, that would have meant the end of us all. It could only have been achieved by consistent checking their each and every move. Therefore the interests of the world's richest and most powerful nation had to be protected, as it was money (or lack of ) that finally toppled CCCP. The dirty business of influence and oil in the Middle East was part of the equation. We prevailed, but the inability to change mindset from cold war to the problems of today has done us, and the world, a great disservice. As far as Afghanistan is concerned, we did not leave them to be defeated by the soviets, but left them to their fate after Soviet withdrawal. This is example of inflexibility that is regrettable. To me , it is similiar to US abandoning fledgling Vietnamese republic after WW2 (Ho Chi Minh was our ally )just to satisfy French continued colonial ambitions. Many believe that Uncle Ho would have discarded Communism with help from us, but that opportunity was missed. With tragic results.
Finally although I accept many who come to our shores are economic migrants, I believe that the lure of freedom is equally as strong, though probably weakest among orthodox/fundamentalist arrivals.
Did not mean to suggest you are woolly liberal, they usually veer far from the facts in order to support ideals, as do right wingers.

To Where Is Your God Now:

The God that you worship might have been busy that day but he must also be very weak! He didn't have the power to do the most important and loving thing: PUT A STOP TO IT!!! If you had the power wouldn't you have prevented it? Yes? Then why didn't He?