Regarding Bush "sending a message to terrorists"...I think Dubya might be surprised to find out that those same terrorists think of themselves as "freedom fighters", and consider the USA to be a terrorist nation.

We should look at what is the definition of the word "terrorist". I think it means someone, anyone, who spreads terror through acts of violence or threats of violence, especially when that terror is directed toward helpless and innocent people, such as civilians.

On that basis, much of the world presently regards the USA as a terrorist nation. After all, the USA has routinely dropped bombs on small countries, mined their harbours (in Vietnam and Nicaragua), financed invasions of their territory by paramilitary formations (routinely referred to by people like Dubya as "freedom fighters"), dropped A-bombs on Japanese cities (unnecessarily, BTW), defoliated jungles and crop areas with chemicals, and so on ad nauseum.

Anyone on the receiving end of these actions probably thinks of American forces and their allies as "terrorists", while they think of their own fighters as "freedom fighters".

And so the world turns...

Terrorism by a national government is still terrorism, just as much as terrorism by people in the Islamic Jihad or the IRA. Just because some president okays it, doesn't mean it is not terrorism.

Terrorism will never be ended by counter-terrorism. It will not be ended by violence. Only actual redress of people's real greivances will end it.

I don't think Bush cares about that, or could be bothered too, providing those people live outside the borders of corporate America.

Ever noticed when an airplane crashes somewhere, your news services tell you right away how many Americans died? As if the other people weren't really human...

We do the same in Canada. It's sick.

- LH