Response to Carl and Kevin:

I'm terribly sorry, but you have misread me. I am not even remotely interested in reading about any 9/11 conspiracy. It makes me wonder what I could possibly say to shake you out of this waking coma.

Carl: You are not a structural engineer. I suggest you contemplate the significance of that.

marilyn,
i am inclined to agree with you. The west has stuffed up big time over Iraq.How many billions of dollars will be spent and how many hundreds of thousands of lives will be lost before Americans say enough ?
For Australia ,having john howard in America on 9/11 was an absolute disaster .Swept up by the fear and paranoia of the day ,it was almost as though he became an American in charge of another country - us ,with ramifications for our future from that moment .
It is important we do not alienate the moderate Muslims in Australia ,we must engage with them as friends and they must do the same .

My point David is that both terrorists and governments seek to make ordinary people afraid. To my mind the Spanish people got it right when they came out on to the steets in their millions and said "no to terrorism and no to war" after the Madrid bombings.

I suppose to most of us - there just isn't any difference. Both involve bombs - both involve people killing people - its just one side seems to have bigger ones [bombs] than the other - so what. Neither side is displaying the 'better' human qualities. We can't seem to stop either of them doing it but we can stop ourselves being afraid and living our lives differently just because one bully or the other says so. Ordinary people are way way way in the majority on this one.

remember when those uni students tried to reveal the ease that fertilizer and chlorine could be purchased, (enough to cause a shocking act of terror) they tried to get a response from the federal government for a very long time. when, in desperation the students threatened to broadcast footage of how easy this was and how they didn't even need to produce i.d., only then, when the governments posture on "war on terror" was threatened, did the government respond, incompetance, indifference, corruption? got to to be one of those. ps be alert, not alarmed.

David,

I can assure you I have contemplated the significance of me not being a structural engineer. This is the reason why the rationale for my beliefs does not rest on this event alone. There is a large amount of circumstantial and solid evidence contributing to my beliefs. I directed you to two different sources, both with a completly different interpretation of the same events, and asked you to make up your own mind before rubbishing others.

Unfortunately you are so closed minded you won't even contemplate the fact that there could be SOME holes in the official story that we have been force fed for five years.

Are you afraid of what you might find out David?

Do you believe everything that you are told so long as it fits in with your understanding of the world?

Contrary to popular belief, I did not start with a conclusion and work backwards, I once rubbished the conspiracy theorists too. Sorry David, but I believe on this issue at least, you are the one in the waking coma.

Am I right or wrong, but to those who argue that the US has bombed Afghanistan to bits was it not the Afghanis themselves who did the ground work in removing the hated Taliban and did they not rejoice in the streets when the Taliban was finally removed from office?

And did most of the Iraqis not celebrate when the evil Saddam was deposed?

I know that things did not turn out very well but aren't the Shiites and the Sunnis causing much of the present killing (of each other) in Iraq at the moment?

And why has Lebanon gone from a Christian to a Muslim majority in recent years?

And TV documentaries have shown that the Taliban were killing women (wearing Burkas) in a public sports ground for adultery and Iran using children as human mine detectors in their war not with the bad old US but with Iraq.

With all the best will in the world it does seem safer to live in Australia or the US or Europe than in almost any Muslim country and that is no doubt why so many Muslims have come here and are enriching our lives.

Unfortunately these wonderful people don't seem to be able to achieve much in the lands of their birth. And don't blame the US for all of their troubles at home Japan and South Korea did OK.