another to deem those adequate for this orders-of magnitude escalation. Listing some of the grievances of others is not tantamount to inferring that the lists imply, "we had THIS coming".

We've made beaucoup errors, and there's no other country without their own list of ignorant actions too (the French in 'Algeria' - er, over and over - always a bit short of intelligence about who their foes were, each time). Let us not forget the Netherlands - culpable in some of the nearest -genocidal atrocities in Africa, early last century. And the Belgians! - some real cutthroats in their merchant class. Europe looted Africa. India saved somewhat, for having little to loot. But (virtual) slavelabor appears to be the current raw material of interest to the world of the rich: US and Europe.

One difference between us and all others is - our unequalled power of $ and arms, which colors and magnifies the consequences of our errors. We mention 'democracy' a lot and so, much more is expected from us. We are also quite variable in our own grokking of the intricacies of the intrigues we step into:

Picking Ngo Dinh Diem as surrogate in Vietnem, for one. Ignoring the locals' objections then and there, and .. in a pattern across our own neighbors, from the CIA-sponsored assassination of Allende in Chile, through Guatemala, Nicaragua (the US-anointed Freedom Fighters + Ronnie's naive US-flag waving over these thugs) .. and more, just in this hemisphere.
(Cuba gets its own thread: Bautista was Our Kind of guy).

Now we have the Drug Warz: Hey everybody! we need so many of these drugs which we try to Prohibit(!) - *you* have to stop answering our demand!, whatever it does within Your country. Because, we have the power to force you to.

I think it's hardly debatable by now: the extent and details of our causing many others to pay any price, bear any burden... as a consequence of our cynical deals with local despots -- against our very own hallowed principles.

And with the likes of Sam Walton Walmart practically dictating what he will pay the workers in our neighborhood *today* (or threaten to move on to the next near-bankrupt country, already pillaged in previous deals) - we indicate that in every case: massive US bizness profit is a much more compelling criterion than our claimed 'ideals'. (Not that our actions inhibit our sanctimony of ever claiming.. those ideals, as we evade them.)

Still, and for all the unsettled and even ongoing minor atrocities - some due to sheer ineptness rather than just greed:

No, we should not have 'expected' 9/11! (expected as in 'earned'). We should have expected *something* though.. virtually any day IMhO, for all items mentioned on this short list - and especially for the fact of all the periodic warnings that even made it through our happy-talk newsfotainment Corporations.

(As other posts have mentioned since 9/11 - even the idea of using planes in this way is NOT new. In fact I recall that argument being a part of the design of containment structures for nuc. reactors - all along, certainly by the early '60s.)

And yes, I know - for every Murican (or any others') 'atrocity' -- always are there the skilled rationales and rationalizations. Even before the lawyers begin. Locals ignore these - talk is cheap, and they stay dirt poor.

Somehow.. the idea that a Chosen People should control ~ HALF (\ufffd depending on the item) of the world's wealth with <5% of its population: appears to me to be the simplest possible place to begin, if there is anyone around who has trouble imagining..

Why should anyone dislike us, a lot?


Ashton

And that especially - the nature of what "he says" is his beef - underscores the utter inappropriateness of the acts of 9/11. It was the act of no-longer humans in the throes of ultimate Religious-insanity: My Idea IS Right = supersedes all other persons' ideas and their lives too.

We / No One "deserved" this insanity. To imagine so, is to become a mechanical part of a computer game, a non-human being.

As we have become militarily invincible, so have we become less and less sensitive to the many in the world who simply - do not want to live as Muricans live, embrace their 'values' (farmily or other), subordinate all of life to: mercantile machinations 24/7. In that sense, how could we *not* hear-fron the many many less-powerful, whose lives are daily affected by our powerful worldwide actions and yes - manipulations ?? But in attention-getting manner, not in doomsday scenarios for all who want a more-open society, free as possible from theological zealotry of all the infinite stripes.

And finally it IS about - The Open Society and Its Enemies (Popper and others). I agree with those who ID this atrocity on that scale. Underlying it all is the fact too, of how much easier is destruction of a complex (organism?) than its creation - symbolized by the ~7 years to construct the towers, an hour to doom them - seconds! for their compression into dust + thousands of ordinary human beings. I believe this is the 'scale', order of magnitude of what has been launched.

No existing 'slogans' can capture the opened Pandora's box, or accurately describe the nature of the quality of all decisions that must be made, next and for the foreseeable. 9/11 ended one era. (The one of "luck" from the infinite possible destructive mechanisms?)

Good luck to us all then. And.. restraint. *Nobody* 'knows' how to deal with matters on such a scale as this.


Ashton