Too often prejudice...ignorance and a lack of respect towards another individual (i.e. another soverign state) leads to violent demonstrations of one's opinion as opposed to another. If you recall back in the 50's the US installed a puppet leader in Iran. The Shah...cruel...indifferent to the plight of what he considered a lesser people (they did not believe as he did)...ruled as a Dictator and punished quite a few who disagreed with his (US) policies. So yeah...who can blame the Iranians for not liking us. It happened in Iraq...after all we...meaning the US...did install another puppet in the form of Saddam Hussien. The US did it in Panama with Manuel Noriega. The list goes on and on. Basically Uncle Sam screwed up a lot of other 'sovereign' states in the pursuit of the almighty dollar (oil...drugs...as in the case of Noriega and another in Indonesia. I hesitate to put a name to him because of all the ill feelings involved towards the veterans of that conflict). In short if this government would look at others for who and what they are with respect for their beliefs and way of life and not for purposes of exploitation perhaps such things like a war on terror could be relegated to a hard cover or paperback novel listed under fantasy. My two cents.

VarikRaith please read my other two responses in this thread:

Weeeell, it's easy to bash the evil US empire. Was practically a folk sport in old europe during the Bush era. But reality ain't as easy as "be nice to each other and then there'll peace".

For one, grudges run deep and keep long (i'm not talking about europeans now). For another, even if the USA suddenly became pacifistic there'll be enough other global players who don't exactly have the best for mankind in mind. Suffice to say that a USA not fighting back against "terrorists" will just leave said gentlemen in positions of global power. And once you start going "DEATH TO AMERICA" it's hard to stop and shake hands with americans when you have hordes of fanatics in your back.

@psychoak

I agree that afghanistan hasn't much to offer to an occupying empire. So we can safely assume that the USA didn't go there out of economic interest. I think the invasion was related to a forced urban development project in New York. It's been known that planning for the Iraq war began 3 months after 9/11 and according to Blair Bush wanted to skip Afghanistan entirely.

Economically speaking that would have been a smart move. Although that would have left Al Quaida in Talibanistan.

Anyway, who cares how much Afghanistan sucks militarily ... they certainly are top notch guerilliarily and terroristicaly. And I don't see a winning strategy for either side from you yet.

That is your opinion

your opinions(thoughts) create conflict, and war is caused by conflict.

The situation in Afghanistan is 100% orchestrated by the US. As was the situation in Iraq. There wouldn't have been any Bin Ladin or Hussein in power at all if it wasn't for the US pumping in truckloads of cash to make just that happen... It's been going on for decades before desert storm.

The US military has been wanting to blast Afghanistan for a very long time. They finally found a way to do it without someone (like the Russians did before) interfering...

Hmm....I'm conflicted about that.

your statement is there is HIGHLY fallacious as well as is your previous post. Its just a bunch of relativism. You expect everybody to agree with your own view point and anyone that doesn't is causing conflict.

By your very own flawed logic you are the cause of conflict because your expect everyone to confirm to what YOU feel is right which is just YOUR OPINION as well.

Do you know anything about Bin Laden? Do you know how the Bin Laden family got their wealth? Did you know that Usama Bin Laden has a degree?

How they made their money in Saudi Arabia?  Yeah, I am banking that you probably don't and will wikipedia this immediately.

Opps, I'm causing conflict here. Oh snaps! That means since war is caused by conflict.  I guess I'm at war.

Yes, what's your point? Do you know anything about the Bin Ladin/Bush relationship at all? They have quite a tight history you know....

Who wins? Those who manage to get out of the way and survive.

Who loses? Those who don't. Usually innocent people who want nothing to do with these greedy wars power wars in the first place.

And as far as education by any government is concerned...our history books are full of lies just as they are in other countries. And if you tell a lie long enough it becomes the truth. And besides...they don't want anyone to know the truth. They want obedient sheep...and thats just what they got.

The only way wars will end is if the sheep wake up...and thats not likely to happen.

Ba..a..a..ah. Never happen.

Yeah, Bush and Usama Bin Ladin are humping it up in a cave. Holding hands. Having their tickle and pillows fights while whispering sweet nothings into one anther's rears. Everyone else is blind to it yadda yadda yadda. Because 'we all know that no plane could have taken down those towers.'

Is this the direction that you're about to take?

You folks sound really smart, but most of you have no clue as to what you are talking about. America has been attacked by terrorists since 1976, we only started to fight back in the 1980’s and stopped when Mr. Clinton took office. Then we started again after 9/11.  the problem is political will. When the US is united by political will we win. We always win. When you have idiots that want to play politics we always lose. Case on point. 9/11 attacks: every country except North Korea and Iraq, offered help in getting rid of the people responsible for the attacks. As soon as the opposition party began to splinter the united front other countries backed away from us. Pakistan helped create the Taliban, they funded and supported them until Mr. Bush said you stand with us or the terrorists. We spent 5 years shutting the Taliban down. Then the opposition party attacked the leader of Pakistan eventually pushing him out of office. Now the Taliban is taking over Pakistan. Just like when Mr. Carter caused the fall of the Shah of Iran allowing Iranian terror groups to grow in the Middle East. We keep getting rid of the people that want to help us and then cry that we can’t win. It would be easier to win if we stop shooting ourselves in the foot.

By the way Paladin, it was the US that actually helped create the Taliban and put them into power, by providing support in the form of training, weapons and supplies in the Afghani-Soviet war during the eighties.

As for terrorists, I think that their best chance of winning is to produce really good horror flicks, thus causing massive and widespread terror throughout USA!