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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: FaultLine who started this subject	9/18/2001 11:53:29 AM
From: Kevin McKenzie	Read Replies (1) of 281500

The events of last week are way beyond my understanding. I'm trying to play catch-up regarding foreign affairs and have found several sources with apparently deep experience in matters like this. Newsmax newsmax.com Federation of American Scientists fas.org Janes Information Group janes.com The NewsMax site is admittedly conservative, but nevertheless, many of the articles are chilling. How Rogue Nations Aid Terrorism newsmax.com Russia Knew in Advance and Encouraged Citizens to Cash Out Dollars newsmax.com CIA was Warned of Attacks newsmax.com Many other interesting articles. I've spent a lot of time reading many posts on SI this past week. Most of us seem either very confused about how to react, or very certain. I've come to the personal conclusion that I need to set aside any "guilt" about being an American. I'm personally tired of being resented because I live in a country whose economic and political system works well and provides for a relatively good standard of living. I don't understand how others living here can in any way blame American prosperity for the terrorist attacks. That doesn't make sense to me. We have been attacked and should defend ourselves. The same people who would criticize us for imposing economic sanctions on oppressive governments would be the first to criticize us for doing business with oppressors. The same people who would criticize us for not supporting freedom fighters would point out that the we got what we deserved because those freedom fighters used our funds and training to stab us in the back. You can't have it both ways. Either you want the U.S. to help make the world a better place or you want political isolationism. When are we going to start blaming the oppressive governments that don't allow women to work, are headed by small cabals that hoard wealth, insist on maintaining socialist economies that don't allow their citizens to prosper? I'm just another very confused citizen, and apparently one of the few on SI who is not an expert on U.S. foreign policy, war, terrorism, humanitarianism, etc. The only thing I know for sure now is that I am an American. I will help defend this country. I don't think there is a single course of action that will be looked favorably upon by history. We can do nothing and be slowly dismantled; we can fight back and be mired in a long, perhaps unwinnable war; we can engage in political and covert strikes and never know for sure if we changed anything. But each one of us now has to decide what we stand for and believe in, because our country is going to change. Those who don't decide will be relegated to watching and brooding and eventually their lives will change regardless of their inaction. I just don't know.

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