RE:Got a wake-up reading the archives...

[Billinet at aol_com]

Hello,

I'm sorry for this way off-topic posting, but this has to be addressed.

Edward said, in part, about what happened after the atrocity on 9/11/02

"  . . . And then we screwed it up!

The news networks focused on the "American disaster" they ignored the people 
from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait and other Islamic countries who 
had lost loved ones and missed a chance to show our solidarity and 
compassion with/for people from the Middle East who had lost family and 
friends. We lost a chance to be more than we were. . . . "
 
No, Edward, we did not screw it up.  Well over 80 percent of the casualties 
were American citizens of various national origins and religions.  Virtually 
all of the property destroyed was owned by American citizens, and Americans 
are bearing most of the burden of the recovery.  

And yes, Americans did go into Afghanistan to clean out the nest from which 
the murderers came and, in the process, returned that long suffering nation 
to something approaching democratic rule.  I wouldn't call that a screw-up.

And the world press recognizes this, at least that of the free world.

But, Edward, somebody did screw up.   Very few of the religious leaders from 
those countries that you named have stood up and condemned the atrocity.  
Some have said things like, "It is a bad thing, but . . . " and others have 
actively encouraged the assassins.  Those people had a chance to do something 
positive, something that would reflect credit on them and their creed, and 
they blew it.

They did, Edward, not the victims.

Bill