Like I said, what's not to like? I mean that has worked out so well for all involved. Anyway, show me someone who dislikes our brand of democracy for export and I'll show you someone who needs a gun shoved into their face to make them understand better how good it is for them. (I hope I don't need to insert a smilie here to indicate my true intent...)
Well I don't think we need a smilie to recognise that things have only gone downhill since our countries decided to force democracy on a country that was no threat to either of us. I think we all know it was about oil and the profits to be made, afterall, when your running out of natural resources why not just take somebody elses? A while back there was a thread about 9/11 conspiracy theories, don't remember you commenting on it. Wonder if you wouldn't mind giving me your perspective from across the Atlantic on such theories?
Personally I'm with South Park on the conspiracy theories about 9/11. They all originate from the American government, as it's crucial the world believes they have power to fix something as big as that, even though in reality they don't...
If I can enjoy watching a my Sunday beer league team play, or MLS, or US Collegiate soccer (NCAA), or even some of the miserable shyte passed off as Premiership football this season, I can enjoy watching the best women in the world play. It's easy if you really love the beautiful game.
Perception is a powerful thing, terror of the mind is often more powerful that the real thing. Like you, i don't believe them, but i would say that the US govt had at least an idea that something big was going to happen, but perhaps took the decision that doing nothing to stop any attacks would prove beneficial to future causes. If your telling me a country with the intelligence resources like America had no idea something as massive as 9/11 was about to happen then i'd be inclined to disagree. If nothing else, the conspiracy theories do raise some questions that the US govt IMHO should, but haven't answered.
To be brutally frank with you the US government are answerable only to the US public. We can't go around telling everyone the US shouldn't be doing this that and the other to the rest of the world, yet while still expecting their government to be answerable to the rest of the world. Personally I'd assume a lack of joined up government caused the failure to pick up the impending danger.
The plot was this: some folks decided they could give the world a black eye by dropping the World Trade Center towers...they had the resolve to do it and did it. The conspiracy comes when you weave that tragedy into occupying Iraq. How the phuck does that work!? I'm so angry about it, and that's on top of the stolen election on 2000 and the miserable failure of the democratic party to field a meaningful opposition. People here can't even tell right from wrong anymore... That said, I have tremendous respect for the military set yet again into a no win situation by an idiotic president. I feel it's been very un-patriotic of the president to expose the men and women (you sexist barsteward) to the pressure Iraq has put them under...to say nothing of what has been done to Iraq and to the image of the US in the world. We used to be the good guys, but in a George Lucas "Attack of the Clones" kind of way, it seems we just morphed from the Republic into the Empire. I hate this SO MUCH.
I was trying to look at it from the perspective of an American, but surely the fact that not just American people died in the tradgedy means they are answerable to others than just the American public? I seem to remember reading documents from the intelligence people warning of impending danger. They seem to know everything else thats happening in the world so personally i fail to see how they could miss this. Maybe i'm just being cynical, but the chance to make somebody else the 'bad-boy' and give the general public reason to back any action in the middle-east would be more than enough reason to sacrifice a few lives, especially with the big pot of black sticky stuff over that way. Nice to have a debate about something other than ***** and colours isn't it!
Well, you asked so... No conspiracy. Intelligence failures were and continue to be massive though. Like the Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941, there is no question that most if not all of the pieces of the puzzle were all available, but they simply weren't put together, just like Pearl Harbor. The Bush Admin has tried to address them, but with minimal success. I'd point you to the "WMD are in Iraq" contention as another massive intelligence failure with devastating effects magnified by brazen political self serving interests. Most of the positive effect of the reorganization of the intelligence operations won't be felt for a long time. Think about how many threats pop up and are squelched DAILY without much being made of it. The hijack of the four jetliners is one that slipped through the cracks with tremendously devastating effect. Regularly people get caught at something and you say "Wow, that was a dumb plan, but if it worked it could have been catastrophic..." There's no possibilty it would have been allowed to happen if all the pieces had been put together. None. Would MI5(6) allowed the underground bombings to happen if they knew? I'm sure you can find someone to say yes, but you can find someone to agree with anything and you won't have to look hard...you just need to be intelligent and critical enough to be able to ascribe truth to those ridiculous contentions when they crop up. (Not intended to insult...) Along history, you see the current establishment fighting the current conflict with the last conflict's tools and philosophy. For example, the British and French continued to make mass human wave assaults on German machine gun positions, and the Germans simply mowed them down by the hundreds of thousands in WWI. The Germans had changed and learned the new technology of the time, and their opponents fought like they beat Napoleon. Same thing in WWII, the French prepare to defeat the Kaiser's army again by building the Maginot line, not comprehending the mobility demonstrated by the Blitzkrieg concept...result was a Nazi move to Paris in a month. The lesson with 9/11, the Madrid train bombings and even the London underground and Tokyo Subway sarin gas attacks is that the resolve is there to see common ordinary objects and scenarios as weapons and opportunities to wreak painful and massive damage. This has revolutionized the guerilla tactic...and we will see more. What level of intelligence is required to meet this threat? The answer is much much more, and this is the challenge facing governments everywhere now. We as citizens have an even tougher job: decide if it is too much and open ourselves up to the vulnerability of more attacks, or tighten up and lead our nations into police states. These are very difficult times for both citizens and governments.
