No matter what your views are of President Bush's statements of war,
> > this is interesting reading...
> >
> >
> > Just a word of background for those of you who aren't familiar with the
> > UK's Daily Mirror. This is a notoriously left-wing daily that is
> > normally not supportive of the Colonials across the Atlantic.
> > Tony Parsons ... Daily Mirror ... September 11, 2002
> > One year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting -- the
> > mass murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the
> > pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol
> > Pot's Mountain of Skulls
> > in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi
> > concentration camps. An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so
> > utterly merciless that surely the world could agree on one thing -
> > nobody deserves this fate. Surely there could be consensus: The victims
> > were truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil.
> >
> > But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America's
> > comeuppance. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last
> > year. There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in this
> > country; too loud, too rich, too full of themselves, and so much happier
> > than Europeans -- but it has become an epidemic. And it seems
> > incredible to me. More than that, it turns my stomach.
> >
> > America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We
> > are bonded to the US by culture, language and blood. A little over half
> > a century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as
> > well as their own. Have we forgotten so soon? And exactly a year ago,
> > thousands of ordinary men, women and children -- not just
> > Americans, but from dozens of countries -- were butchered by a small
> > group of religious fanatics.
> > Are we so quick to betray them? What touched the heart about those who
> > died in the Twin Towers and on the planes, was that we recognized them.
> > Young fathers and mothers, somebody's son and somebody's daughter,
> > husbands, wives, and children, some unborn. And these people brought it
> > on themselves? Their nation is to blame for their meticulously planned
> > slaughter?
> >
> > These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul or
> > Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan. The
> > anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame
> > the Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives
> > suffering from power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can
> > do what
> > it likes without having to ask permission. The truth is that America
> > has behaved with enormous restraint since September 11.
> >
> > Remember ... remember . remember ... the gut-wrenching tapes of
> > weeping men phoning their wives to say, "I love you," before they were
> > burned alive. Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the
> > top of burning skyscrapers. Remember the hundreds of firemen buried
> > alive. Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was
> > on one of the planes with her mum. Remember . remember ...
> >
> > And realize that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything like
> > the way it could have.
> >
> > So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked up without a trial in Camp X-ray?
> > Pass the Kleenex. So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after
> > they merrily fired their semiautomatics in a sky full of American
> > planes? A shame, but maybe next time they should stick to confetti.
> > AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking lot.
> > That it didn't is a sign of strength. American voices are already being
> > raised against attacking Iraq -- that's what a democracy is for.
> >
> > How many in the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the
> > slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the
> > guts to say that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abomination? When the
> > news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving Palestinians
> > were dancing in the street. America watched all of that -- and didn't
> > push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the most
> > powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that 9/11 did
> > not provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism." A real war.
> >
> > The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of hell"
> > if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of
> > hell like you wouldn't believe. The US is the most militarily powerful
> > nation that ever strode the face of the earth. The campaign in
> > Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war on Iraq
> > may be misconceived.
> >
> > But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these
> > wretched countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East,
> > or in the Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand
> > -- assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting. I
> > love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's
> > poodle. But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in
> > Riyadh.
> >
> > Above all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to
> > be, rich, free, strong, open, optimistic. Not ground down by the past,
> > or religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend this
> > country ever had and we should start remembering that. Or do you really
> > think the USA is the root of all evil? Tell it to the loved ones of the
> > men and women who leaped to their death from the burning towers. Tell
> > it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the hijacked
> > planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper. And tell it to
> > the hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New York Fire
> > Department.
> >
> > To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein. Once
> > we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and
> > set up rape-camps in Kuwait. Remember . remember ... September 11.
> > One of the greatest atrocities in human history was committed against
> > America. No, do more than remember. Never forget
> > this is interesting reading...
> >
> >
> > Just a word of background for those of you who aren't familiar with the
> > UK's Daily Mirror. This is a notoriously left-wing daily that is
> > normally not supportive of the Colonials across the Atlantic.
> > Tony Parsons ... Daily Mirror ... September 11, 2002
> > One year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting -- the
> > mass murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the
> > pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol
> > Pot's Mountain of Skulls
> > in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi
> > concentration camps. An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so
> > utterly merciless that surely the world could agree on one thing -
> > nobody deserves this fate. Surely there could be consensus: The victims
> > were truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil.
> >
> > But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America's
> > comeuppance. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last
> > year. There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in this
> > country; too loud, too rich, too full of themselves, and so much happier
> > than Europeans -- but it has become an epidemic. And it seems
> > incredible to me. More than that, it turns my stomach.
> >
> > America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We
> > are bonded to the US by culture, language and blood. A little over half
> > a century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as
> > well as their own. Have we forgotten so soon? And exactly a year ago,
> > thousands of ordinary men, women and children -- not just
> > Americans, but from dozens of countries -- were butchered by a small
> > group of religious fanatics.
> > Are we so quick to betray them? What touched the heart about those who
> > died in the Twin Towers and on the planes, was that we recognized them.
> > Young fathers and mothers, somebody's son and somebody's daughter,
> > husbands, wives, and children, some unborn. And these people brought it
> > on themselves? Their nation is to blame for their meticulously planned
> > slaughter?
> >
> > These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul or
> > Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan. The
> > anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame
> > the Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives
> > suffering from power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can
> > do what
> > it likes without having to ask permission. The truth is that America
> > has behaved with enormous restraint since September 11.
> >
> > Remember ... remember . remember ... the gut-wrenching tapes of
> > weeping men phoning their wives to say, "I love you," before they were
> > burned alive. Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the
> > top of burning skyscrapers. Remember the hundreds of firemen buried
> > alive. Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was
> > on one of the planes with her mum. Remember . remember ...
> >
> > And realize that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything like
> > the way it could have.
> >
> > So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked up without a trial in Camp X-ray?
> > Pass the Kleenex. So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after
> > they merrily fired their semiautomatics in a sky full of American
> > planes? A shame, but maybe next time they should stick to confetti.
> > AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking lot.
> > That it didn't is a sign of strength. American voices are already being
> > raised against attacking Iraq -- that's what a democracy is for.
> >
> > How many in the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the
> > slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the
> > guts to say that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abomination? When the
> > news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving Palestinians
> > were dancing in the street. America watched all of that -- and didn't
> > push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the most
> > powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that 9/11 did
> > not provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism." A real war.
> >
> > The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of hell"
> > if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of
> > hell like you wouldn't believe. The US is the most militarily powerful
> > nation that ever strode the face of the earth. The campaign in
> > Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war on Iraq
> > may be misconceived.
> >
> > But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these
> > wretched countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East,
> > or in the Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand
> > -- assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting. I
> > love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's
> > poodle. But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in
> > Riyadh.
> >
> > Above all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to
> > be, rich, free, strong, open, optimistic. Not ground down by the past,
> > or religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend this
> > country ever had and we should start remembering that. Or do you really
> > think the USA is the root of all evil? Tell it to the loved ones of the
> > men and women who leaped to their death from the burning towers. Tell
> > it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the hijacked
> > planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper. And tell it to
> > the hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New York Fire
> > Department.
> >
> > To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein. Once
> > we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and
> > set up rape-camps in Kuwait. Remember . remember ... September 11.
> > One of the greatest atrocities in human history was committed against
> > America. No, do more than remember. Never forget
