Amos, we have not punished or brought to justice, those responsible for the 9/11 attacks. We did invade and topple the despotic government of another nation which was giving refuge to terrorists, but it has never been proven beyond doubt that the terrorist cells operating in Afghanistan were in fact connected to the terrorist cells which carried out the attacks.

The reason why we haven't been able to bring those responsible for the 9/11 attacks to justice, is our poor intelligence capabilities in this regard, and our insistence on propping up illegitimate leaders like the Saudis, while the terrorist cells continue to breed under the noses of those leaders (nay--from their own families!).

Or our foreign policy vis a vis Israel and the Palestinian territories--the double standard we uphold there, which essentially manifests a cruel double standard for the world to see--we value the lives of Israelis more than we do Palestinians, because we control the government of Israel through our foreign policy military appropriations, which has armed them to the teeth, and looked the other way when they commit war crimes and gross human rights violations. Sharon/Netanyahu--again "our bastards", so we justify continuing to fan the flames of violence in the region, rather than diffuse them.

I don't feel we have been made safer in this country from attacks from within, like the Oklahoma City bombing, or from without, as with 9/11. Or from things like the anthrax attacks upon the US government and it's citizens, which was a circumstance where it has never proved whether it was an attack from within the US or from outside it. I don't feel more safe, in fact, I feel less safe, because I know that the results of the new Bush foreign policy doctrine is only fueling anti-American hatred on the ground, around the world. That is going to come right back at us, which is exactly what happened on 9/11.

Sorry to bow out of the conversation here folks, but I've got to get to work. It's a great thread.