[Geordie McMillan]

Ian, Phil from the Bronx, et al.;

This is clearly a hot topic and one that touches the emotions of many people 
both within and outside of the USA. I for one second do NOT condone the 
actions taken by whoever it was that crashed those planes into the WTC, the 
Pentagon and that often forgotten field in Pennslvania. My absolute 
heartfelt sympathies DO go out to those that were affected, the thousands 
that they are.

However, a few issues need to be put into perspective. For people to say 
NOTHING like this has happened in history is, in my opinion, incorrect and 
disrespectful to the wider history of the world. It is true though that 
nothing like this has ever happened on American soil, which does set a 
precedent, an albeit unfortunate one.

The fact that 'September 11th' received so much publicity is in my opinion a 
direct consequence of the United States' isolationist and often hypocritical 
foreign affirs policies emplaced for the past 70-odd years. These policies 
are again a direct consequence of the Puritanical religious beliefs that are 
at the very centre of American 'democracy' and serve to further highlight 
the rampant conflict of interests between faith and governance in the USA. 
To be patriotic and proud of your country in the global arena is one thing; 
to explicitly pronounce the supposed superiority of it is something else.

Where 'retaliation' is involved, I think it was unavoidable, however 
unfortunate, that the USA and its allies have taken direct military actions. 
It is for these circumstances, which I believe someone else on this list 
highlighted several days ago, that the International Criminal Court was to 
be endorsed.

If the United States was serious is hunting down terrorist organisations, it 
should have ratified the ICC and pursued whoever the perpetrators (and their 
sponsors) were through this system. Once again, the USA demonstrated its 
complete contempt for a global system that may, through secondary means, 
have highlighted it as being the not-so-white knight of international 
relations.

For a nation, which Australia, the UK and Western Europe can also bracket 
themselves in, that espouses the superiority of 'freedom' and 'democracy', 
it is definitely giving the wrong signals and intentions to developing 
nations the world over.

Geordie.

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