First of all, the policies under Bush were not in place when the attacks of Sept 11, 01 were planned, Bush was still wet behind the ears. The attacks were planned while Clinton was in office, a man who did go through the UN and was soft internationally. That does not mean that Bush's approach was right, but it does indicated that US foreign policy is not the motivating factor.
The people who are willing to strap bombs to themselves and blow up busses and discos, or fly planes full of people into buildings are dangerous. Period. They have no respect for human life and see taking the lives of their enemies as a holy crusade. There is no way to fight ideology like that, it just can't be done. You can pull ever western person out of the middle east, pull out the businesses, pull out of the oil industry, disolve Israel and it won't matter. The existence of a society where women can dress themselves, work, vote and hold positions of power is directly opposed by the people who carried out these attacks. It's not western policy that they wish to undermine, they wish to destroy our culture and have said so in their statements, audio and video releases.
I'm conflicted. I don't like war (those with military family members never do), and I don't think it's right that we are doing some of the things that we are, but what did those people in the WTC do to deserve their fate? What did their families do to deserve watching loved ones have to choose between being burned alive, crushed or to jump to their death? Remember that this was before the current war in Iraq - Desert Storm was a UN operation.
Yes, I still get angry when I think about it, and damnit I should be angry. You should be angry. That does not mean that we should lash out indescriminately, but we should focus the effort to finding the people who are responsible - all of them.
The world is becomming more and more divided, with a deepening rift between the fundamentalists and western society. If they were content to stay in their sandbox corner of the world and run things the way they want I would be fine with that - sorry for all the people who live under that oppressive rule, but I wouldn't do anything about it. Yes, the western world - including the US - has made mistakes, but we never used civilian airliners as weapons.
You can go on all you want about how one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. These people are not fighting for freedom, they are fighting to continue oppression. Oppression of will, ideas, speach, women, other tribes, other belief systems. If they were fighting for freedom they would not have highjacked airliners and flown them into buildings, they would not have bombed flights in Tel Aviv and Scotland. They don't even need to ask the west for freedom, they have the ability to take it themselves, these terroist attacks are just the few who rule by fear staying in controll over their corner of the world and trying to export their deranged sense of religious superriority and closed minded bigorty to everyone else.
Rant over. I know that I'm going to be ripped a new one for this, but it's how I feel. Just remember that I oppose the war in Iraq and I think that we do need to change our poilcy, but that does not keep me from being angry about what these bastards did. One can be tried for his actions, not his thoughts - and although I think about the things I sometimes would like to do to these poeple the difference between me and them is that I don't do it. I don't get on a plane or a bus with a bomb while they do. So flame away everyone.
My thoughts are with the survirors of the attacks and the families of those who perished this day 5 years ago.
*