Ouch!

[A Black Falcon]

That's not the point. We should not have let him go because we didn't expect such an attack. We should have nailed him the first time he made any sort of attack. Besides, we SHOULD have expected something like 9-11, after all, the WTC was attacked by Al-Qaeda before 9-11! Had that attack been successful, the toll might have been far worse than 9-11. And Clinton did nothing, probably because it didn't turn out so bad.

Of course I wish previous administrations had done more. Doesn't everyone? But ask yourself. Before 9/11 were you worried like this about this? Oh I know you (conservatives as a group) detest Clinton for some bizarre reason (he's a MODERATE for crying out loud! Not a liberal! And pro-business!), but NO ONE expected it like this. Complaining like you are doing is looking at the past from the perspective of the present... seeing mistakes we didn't then... you can always do that but when you think of the situation at the time I think they did as well as they could be expected to.

International opinion clashes with our interests. International opinion, in fact, often serves against our interests. So, why should we harm ourselves just to be popular?

Neither of those statements are even remotely true.

Whatever. Either you are incapable of comprehending the effect, or you choose to ignore it. Either way, you're wrong.

Wrong about what? That Iraq didn't support Al-Quaida? That Iraq didn't have NBC (Nuclear Biological Chemical) weapons? That Iraq was (yes under duress, but THAT use of force (as a lever to get what you want from someone like Sadaam, like we were doing) isn't one I have a problem with...) cooperating with the international community as much as you could possibly expect it to?

...

Oh wait, all of those things are TRUE! Iraq was NOT a threat to US national security. It had NOTHING to do with 9/11. It was NOT supporting Al-Quaida. It had no appreciable amount of banned weapons or weapons programs left. So why, exactly, is it such a good move? Especially when you consider the Iraqis and what they feel about Americans, being that they are Arabs... anyone who didn't see longterm chaos and revolt against our rule (and that's what it is) was a blind fool.

Afghanistan of course attacked us so it had to be dealt with. Abandoning that effort midstream and letting that nation rot was a very serious policy error for Bush that could have very bad long-term consequences.

Tell me then, what would make those radical Muslim murderers like us?

I'll tell you. They'd like us if we were dead. If you want to do that for their sake, be my guest. I personally prefer they were dead rather than myself.

Umm, what does that have to do with what I said? 'World opinion' includes more than the Middle East, first. Second, yes, they hate us (Arabs). With good reason, as they see us helping Israel against Palestine... now I support Israel too, but the fact is that the Arabs' hatred is at its base about Israel. We have to just understand that until/unless Israel/Palestine is dealt with (and that seems like a hopeless task...), the Arabs will on the whole dislike us... there are ways of countering that of course but unilateral actions and occupation of Arab nations are not exactly the way to do that.

But of course all this 'diplomacy' stuff goes right over the head of one of absolute faith that THEY ARE RIGHT like fools like you... sad...