That's an admirable position, but very naive. As far as Saddam 'killing his own people', remember those were Kurdish separatists who would have killed just as many Iraqis if they had the capability...and remember who provided Saddam with those chemical weapons? Your beloved US Government! To kill Iranians was the official purpose, and in the eyes of those who provided the weapons the 'collateral damage' was worth it. Just ask 'Rummy', who cavorted around Baghdad back in the 80's chumming around with Saddam. I dislike Saddam as well, but how many dictators are there in the world? The key is this particular dictator is sittin on a big fat pile of black gold that the Bushies want. North Korea doesn't have enough so it's not worth it...as far as the military goes, those poor clueless kids have been indoctrinated so they think they're fighting for 'freedom' but are really fighting for Exxon and Texaco and Halliburton...Traditionally the US has used military for defensive purposes to keep our citizenry safe and has never entered a preemptive war like this would be. This sort of arrogance is precisely why 'we' are hated--the actions of our government with its atrocious and brutal foreign policy.

I could say what I wanted to in France or the rest of Europe or even South Africa these days without getting shot...though if John Asscroft had his way, all dissenters would be shot as traitors..'you're either with us or against us'...

'Israel' was a huge mistake on behalf of the colonial powers that created it a couple generations ago on someone else's land. Since then, how many billions of dollars have we given to prop up that country, with a prosperous economy, in lieu of more needy countries? Each year we give more than 5 billion to a country with a population of a few million with a brutal regime hellbent on ethnic cleansing of the native people. In light of the huge disparity in arms, how else are the Palestinian people supposed to resist occupation? I'll bet Americans would line up in droves to blow themselves up to liberate NYC if New York was occupied by China somehow and the rest of the world didn't give a Best if kept off the board. Anti-Zionist and Anti-Israel is NOT the same thing as anti-Jew. And how dare you tie the struggle of the Palestinians to what happened in NYC? Osama is proud of you, because that's exactly the link he's trying to claim as well...

The people of Islam respect other 'people of the book', both Christian and Jew, and in Palestine before the Zionist occupation all three religions coexisted relatively peacefully. Did you ever learn that Zionist 'Israelis' suicide-bombed British soldiers to establish their state? They invented the practice, now karma's coming back to haunt them for the example they set. Both Muslim and Christian Palestinians are being oppressed and occupied by Jewish fundamentalists, so to frame this conflict as Muslims vs. Christians/Jews is misleading at best and blatantly hateful and racist at worst.

Remember Tariq Aziz of Iraq is a Christian as well...this is not about religion (Saddam's is a SECULAR regime) this is about economics. Saddam did not blow up the WTC...it's unrelated, but it sure would be a convenient pretext...so what if it's untrue as long as enough people are fooled into thinking it IS true. How many American children has Iraq killed over the last decade? Try zero. How many Iraqi children have been killed by the US, directly and indirectly over the last decade? Hundreds of thousands. Who's really evil here?

As far as the 'dancing in the streets' goes, if you'd bothered to follow the news stories in the weeks following the attacks, you'd know that in the name of journalistic sensationalism and 'breaking a big story' and tweaking emotions of Americans for ratings, a) Stock footage was used from other unrelated celebrations of dancing in the streets and b) the small minority of maybe a couple hundred out of millions was blown way out of proportion and played ad nauseum to make it seem as if the whole Arab world was celebrating the attacks. That couldn't be further from the truth and true believers of Islam were offering condolences, even if they didn't agree and were angry with America's policies. And what do you make of Israelis in America (and Israel) dancing and whooping and celebrating as they watched footage of the attacks, knowing this would be a huge PR boost for their cause (apartheid, ethnic cleansing and eventual expulsion). That was up on Fox News and CNN for weeks.

The American people are truly a great and loving people but are terribly misinformed, uneducated and thus unconcerned about world affairs, foreign policy and the like so those in power take advantage of this to enrich themselves and the corporations they represent. To use 9/11 as an excuse to attack anyone we don't like is un-American...dishonest and filthy. What a disgrace to the victims of that tragedy that this administration is cynically using the raw emotions to channel that righteous anger to serve their own evil purposes.

It's the job of the leaders to stand behind and execute the will of the people who elected them, not the other way around! We have too many problems in our own country to be meddling in other countries affairs, paying billions for others' weapons and po'ing just about everyone in the process. Wake up from your jingoistic, propaganda-induced trance! If you're referring to the last election, you are terribly misinformed...U.S. IS (supposed to be) a representative democracy (as opposed to a direct democracy) and yeah, although our current 'president' was appointed by the Supreme Court, usually the winner of the Electoral College (which Gore would have been had all the votes been counted) is the winner even if (s)he loses the popular vote. Is that what you're referring to? I agree the US is becoming much less of a democracy...some would like to see it become a theocracy, but luckily there is still some semblance of a Constitution left, though not much...

I am an artist, and I got a finger for both Bush and Blair...and one for Cheney and Wolfowitz, and another double finger for Rumsfeld and Asscroft. You can bet many protest songs will follow....as Sleater-Kinney put it in 'Combat Rock' on the album 'One Beat',

"They told us that there's only 2 sides to be on,
If you agree with us you're right-if not you're wrong,
But are we innocent paragons of good?
Is the guilt outweighed by the pain that we've endured?
Hey look it's time to pledge allegiance--
I love my dirty Uncle Sam!
Our country's marching to the beat now,
and we must learn to step in time!
Where is the questioning, where is the protest song?
Since when is skepticism un-Amer-ican?
Dissent's not treason but they talk like it's the same,
Those who disagree are afraid to show their face
Let's break out all our old machines now
'Sure is good to see them run again...
Gentlemen start your engines!'
And we know where we get the oil from...
Are you feelin alright, are you singing 'let's fight!'
as innocent people die
And noone's ever told...
She loved her country, go out and spend some cash
Red-white-blue hot pants doing it for Uncle Sam...
The good old boys are back on top again,
and if we let them lead us blindly,
the past becomes the future once again....