Wow Kerry took the Florida primary!

[kandrathe]

Ridiculous? Maybe. Seems all of our Federal buildings are protected by massive concrete bunkers to prevent suicide attacks. You are right, though in that the US, and CIA in particular in hindsight made some bad choices over the past 50 years (and some were probably between bad, and worse). We ourselves were considered a band of rebels by the British Empire, and so it is hard for us sometimes to not look at Chechyn rebels, or Afghani muhajadin's as brother rebels. There are different movements even within those struggles, like the muhajadin leader(Ahmed Shah Massoud) that OBL's group assassinated for the Taliban. I'm not very familiar with the Basque seperatist movement, but I would suspect that there are seperatists, and then there is ETA. Same for northern Ireland, some people are just willing to go one level further, into terrorism. I found this story yesterday when I was digging around, and of particular interest was the story of Shadi Abdallah.

Zarqawi explained to him that the goal of his organization, Al Tawhid, was the overthrow of the Jordanian monarchy, and he invited Abdallah to go to Jordan to participate in the organization. Abdallah declined, and Zarqawi sent him to Germany in mid-2001 (Abdallah had lived there previously) to organize terror attacks against Jews and Americans. Arrested by German authorities late last year, Abdallah turned state's evidence against his comrades, and his testimony is quite recent; his latest interrogation dates to last September(2002).

National Review: The Europeans Know More Than They Now Pretend? Micheal Ledeen February 11, 2003
So, I see it as each person deciding to what level they will slide down that slope. Kill Germans, Americans and Jews, fine. Kill the Jordanian royal family, no way.

There are some like Hamas, PLO or Sinn Féin that are trying to develop (into) a political organization. Like with Libya, I'm willing to move on if they have given up supporting organizations and actions (whatever you want to call them) that target and kill civilians. I remember having a very lively debate with a member of the ANC back in the early 80's where I espoused my opinion that "necklacing" was barbaric. I guess I have a very clear boundary when it comes to killing people. I can support people who take up arms against their oppressors, but I personally regret every civilian death, even if it is accidental.

"The People" of America also have a history of trying to reign in their government when we discover that they have supported some ruthless third world tyrrant. Some, like Marcos or Noriega we then go on to help drive out of power. Some, where our interests are not at risk, like Aristede or Mugabe, we just step aside a let the people decide.

I'd like to think that we've been doing better lately at choosing the right side.