Bill D wrote: >..we are just trying to comprehend how ***ANYONE** can process reality so grotesquely as to think we deserved THAT....innocent civilians destroyed en masse to make some arcane socio/political/religious point!!!

Well, I've just read in a reputable newspaper that an opinion poll shows that two-thirds of American citizens believe that retaliation is justified 'even if it brings about the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians'.

So, if it's ok for Americans to do it ...

This doesn't mean _I_ believe it's ok, nor that I don't deplore the attacks, nor that I haven't wept for the dead.
But my breath is taken away by the sheer naivete and/or arrogance of Americans who honestly believe their country can do no wrong, that it represents a shining beacon of freedom and democracy etc etc.
Have you already forgotten that your current President is only in office because he got the recounts stopped while he was still winning?
Have you forgotten, or didn't you know, that only last year you, "our gallant allies that have always stood shoulder to shoulder with us etc etc", threatened to wipe out the Scottish woollen industry? Because we were trying to help out the small independent banana farmers of the Caribbean who were threatened with the loss of, not only their livelihoods, but the economy of whole islands, by the giant fruit corporations that had given financial support to Clinton?
What was done to you was wrong - but because you're human beings, with all the failings of human beings, not because America is somehow a better country than any other.