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Cute. Now put it up next to a list of terrorist attacks sponsored by these countries or carried out by groups from them PRIOR TO these events. You want to make it even more one-sided...add body counts.

Tell you what. Why don't you post the terrorist attacks on the US with dates. You'll see that we replaced the democratically elected president of Iran with the dictatorial Shah in the 1950's. 20+ years before they took hostages. Our response: bomb them and aid Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war. That's just one example. I leave the rest to you as a history lesson. The attacks on 9-11 were are NOT justifiable. They were a dispicable act of mass murder. They are, sadly, explainable. So, go ahead and post away; you might end up changing your own opinion a bit.

Matrix - Let's say for the sake of argument all those geopolitical issues are true and the US has been in the wrong multiple times.

Given that I'd like to opine that regardless of that the current events were probably going to happen anyway. Simply an opinion, I can't prove it, but bear with me.

Why? Our founding document, radical 225 years ago, is no less radical today. What makes it special is it's promise of the "unalienable rights" of every person including "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." American's are not _obligated_ to give themselves to a higher purpose.

What seems to drive others crazy is that we don't see those persuits as a right, we take them for granted. IMO others see this as us being selfish and shallow. This is nothing new, this has been going on for decades. Ditto what appears to them as our lust for wealth (and perhaps the reason the WTC was a target). Money is still considered the root of all evil in many cultures.

It's not limited to those outside of the US. Yesterday or the day before I read a column (can't remember where) that we have lost the "safe and coddled life" we have enjoyed. "Coddled"? To persue what our founders considered our God given right? To be safe from insanity?

Our freedom is a threat to those that wish to control and nothing inflames them more than our model. It was bad enough when it was limited to the US but now millions and millions see us as the shining city on the hill. Nothing threatens tyrants and terrorists more than a concept that will destroy everything they wish to maintain.

Mix in some religious beliefs (don't take my word for it, check out the Koran, Jihad and infidels) and you have a pretty strong brew.

Again, I can't prove this, just like we can't prove that if the events you mention hadn't happened this wouldn't have happened, but I know absolutely that there are people that created events that I don't understand through a very, very long historical lens; Stalin and Hitler for two, other than the filter of wanting power and wanting to destroy.

I appreciate your consideration of these ideas.

Do we have to 'prove' our patriotism by how high we wave the flag and with how much vehemence we denounce the terrorists? I have no need to prove my patriotism and I certainly can't prove it by wearing red, white and blue. It is more a time to be humble and reflect upon our failings as a people in allowing our leaders to bring us to this point. The world is not perfectible, no more than your next door neighbor is perfectible and we cannot go around trying to correct every problem and give them the beneficience of our materialistic culture. We correct ourselves and try to set a good example. The words of the greatest American, George Washington would be appropriate: "Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people guided by an exalted justice and benevolence...Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its Virtue?...In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded...Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable...The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of Nations has been the victim.. Maybe it is time to listen to General Washington and not the pundits and politicians.

There was once a time when America chose to stay out of most conflicts outside our borders. We stepped into WWI when our friends needed us. We tried to stay out of further conflict, but the Japanese made that impossible. It was a whole different world after that. We realized that we could no longer stand back and only step in at the last minute. There was too much of a threat to our way of life. Russia rose from WWII to become a giant and quite obviously had expansionist goals. We had no choice but to follow suit in expanding our influence to prevent a political (and eventually, a military) empire from rising out of the ashes of the Third Reich. Much of what we've done since has been to make sure we never face another Nazi Germany. We have most certainly made some mistakes, but the intention has almost always been to protect the freedom of Americans and anyone else who calls on us to protect that same freedom in their nation.

These people want to destroy our way of life. It's my government's job to make sure that never happens. That this attack was predictible and expected does not mean we deserved it or were asking for it. There have been and always will be people who loathe the United States of America, no matter what our foreign policy.