Peter, a well reasoned (as usual) post. I remember another Olympics in which a bunch of athletes guilty of nothing more than being from Israel were taken captive and butchered. Seems wrecking the Olympic spirit is not the exclusive domain of the US and the west.

I am in agreement with the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians. I agree that Iraq was a horrible blunder and that it was not launched for legitimate reasons. I even understand the frustration of outgunned fighters using desperate measures.

What I am in disagreement with here is the same round of folks that never miss an opportunity to complain. I am feeling that it isn't about legitimacy, but rather to be negative about the West no matter the circumstance. One cannot rationally explain what happened here, because in these situations one doesn't have time to rationalize. One must react. And damned if you do and damned if you don't.

This was a horrible tragedy for all parties, especially the young man and his family. Some folks here need to drop the phoney intellect arguments and just admit that they love these types of things because it gives them ammo in there obsessive need to criticize.

Mick