To: MSI who wrote (258747 ) 5/26/2002 11:28:44 PM From: Raymond Duray Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 769670 Re: One interpretation of a "forever war" involving unlimited numbers of mostly Muslims, is the crusader issue. The First Crusade began in 1095. We've been at this for 907 years. Is that close enough to forever for you? <g> Re: The question everyone needs to keep asking is: What is the definition of success? Another 907? Re: If they answer that, they will identify their real vision for this country. I thought Gore Vidal had it exactly right: "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace"nationbooks.org Here's the blurb: Gore Vidal's commentary on the events of September 11, 2001 was deemed not publishable in the United States. His Italian publisher issued this book a few months ago, which became an instant #1 best seller there. German, French, Spanish, Portugese, and other editions are soon to be published. "Two dates are apt to be remembered for longer than usual in the United States of Amnesia: September 11, 2001 when Osama bin Laden and his Islamic terrorist organization struck at Manhattan and the Pentagon, and April 19, 1995 when Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 innocent men, women, and children. Why did they do these deeds? McVeigh was a crazed monster the media said. And Osama? The Pentagon Junta programmed their president to tell us that bin Laden was an "evil-doer" who envied us our goodness and wealth and freedom. None of these explanations made much sense but our rulers for more than half a century have made sure that we are never to be told the truth about anything that our government has done to other people, not to mention our own. That our ruling junta might have seriously provoked McVeigh and Osama was never dealt with. We consumers don't need to be told the why of anything. Certainly those of us who are in the why-business have a difficult time in getting through the corporate-sponsored American media, so I thought it useful to describe here the various provocations on our side that drove both bin Laden and McVeigh to such terrible acts." Gore Vidal, is the author of twenty-two novels, five plays, many screenplays, more than two hundred essays, and a memoir. The Times Literary Supplement (U.K.) noted that Vidal's United States (Essays 1952-92) is one of the great American books of the twentieth century. It won the 1993 National Book Award.