No, Carol, we do not have as much blood on our hands as anyone else.

The involvement of the US Government in South American affairs was a crying crime. And I was pissed too. And it was not even "our" dirty work. But it was hateful that we had anything to do with it, i concur.

But I think on reflection the indirect support -- which we also gave the Taliban on its path of murder and power when the USSR was the "enemy" -- should be differentiated from the unilateral origination of violence with intent.

A fatalistic mind might reach the conclusion that we "must have deserved it or it would not have happened". But I cannot, myself, reach that far into resignation. I am not espousing violence beyond the amount needed to render the actual sources of this offense powerless. I am completely in agreement that the cults of terrorism must be eliminated -- and after watching those hard-working early morning employees at the WTC leap to their deaths, I am sorry to say I do not much mind whether they are eliminated through diplomatic means, financial means, or military means.

Another reason why the "just as much blood" argument does not hold water is that there is the little matter of purpose. Although we spilled the blood of Iraqis, during the Deseret Storm war, it must also be said that we did so to liberate an invaded nation. I cannot speak for the "purpose" of our involvement in El Salvador, but we have never espoused, as Mister Bin Laden has, the extermination of a whole nation of civilians merely because of their nationality. I think even the most compassionate heart can appreciate that distinction . We have never proposed the extermination of large numbers of people on purely religous grounds. Nor on racial grounds.

Finally, I think it is true that the very non-combatant, working employees of the WTC for the most part had none of the crimes on their hands which Bin Laden accuses "America" of. I think they were served an extreme injustice. And whether we have ever committed injustoce or not, is not a basis for deciding to accept further injustice of such extreme, irreparable, violently final character.

A