Well I'm not hiding behind the guest label, but whatever guests motives are, he/she does have a valid point. The west turns a blind eye to its own atrocities. The deaths of foreigners do not hurt us so grievously. We may not commit single atrocities on this scale (at least not recently), but we murder just as cruelly. Over one million children have died as a direct result of US and britain led sanctions against Iraq. Our unchecked globalisation and hammering of poor countries (by refusing to cancel the debt) has cause untold suffering. We prop up murderous regimes that suit our political ends.

Maybe the combination of all these and more is enough to be seen as an act of war against some peoples, and some extremists are retaliating.

This is in no way a justification of what has happened, but a plea not to answer evil with more evil, and a plea to look at our own culpability in the deaths of millions.

Bagpuss