Hi Cara,
Just to put a little something right here to bring you up to speed on what the Americans have been doing in the fight against terrorism UP TO September 11th. The United States of America has been the highest contributer to the IRA (Irish Republican Army) now the Real IRA, since the IRA's inception. The IRA is a terrorist organisation based in Ireland which has killed and maimed not only soldiers of your so called allies, the UK, but also has killed and maimed Fathers, mothers and also children who lived not only in Northern Ireland but also in the UK. They have bombed churches, shops, towns and murdered inocent people in their beds. They also attempted to murder Margret Thatcher when she was prime minister by blowing apart the hotel in Brighton where the Tory Party conference was staying. Since the early seventies when this all started did the great USA do anything about it, did the USA even attempt to stop the arms movements to Ireland from their own ports, NO they did nothing apart from send more money to the terrorist organisation called the IRA who were causing so much destuction. Why was this, well several reasons but the main one was that your government even after repeated requests from the UK did nothing because it did not want to upset the Irish section of the voting public in the USA. So do not become all gracious now that the fight against terrorists has bloodied you own door step. You see there is always three sides to an argument, his side, her side and the truth. There are of course two sides in NI fighting, each thinking that they are right, and never contemplating the fact that they might be both right. They will keep on fighting, they will keep on bombing because they will always believe that what they are fighting for is the only right way. This is something that the USA is just about to learn. You will never find them because it is not one person, it is an idea a belief, and you can not fight a belief.
I lost family in Northern Ireland because of an IRA bomb and I can appreciate more than most what suffering the people who lost loved ones on Sept 11th, are going through even now. Believe me when the majority of people have forgotten, as they will when it disapears from the screans of your TV's over the next twelve months, the families of the victims and also the brave men and women who tried so hard to save people and were then forced to drag the bodies of their collegues out of the rubble will all have to live that terror every single day of their lives. It does not disapear from their TV screans, it does not fade away with time, the memory will not be able to be pushed to the back of their minds every day like it can be for you. They will live the night mare again and again. This is what I have had to live with for over twelve years, when my two cousins were blown apart in a car bomb attack not 100 yards from where I stood. But that was over twelve years and what have the USA done since then about my two cousins.
Normally I keep quiet about all this as it does cause friction, but no more, I am tired of being quiet and politically correct on this as being quiet would insult the memory of my family as I would for all intence and purposes be denying it ever happened. Well I'm sorry Cara it did.
I'm sorry but the great USA it is not, and as for your president, well did he win the election or not, as the majority of Americans according to the voting stats did in fact vote against him.
I only hope your Dutch is as good as Pieter's english, then maybe you could reply in his own tounge or are the Administrators going to throw you out for your racial comments about your allies from across the water. I am sorry this is a multinational site is it not just a place for our American cousins.
As for why people kepp this sort of thing going? Well maybe its because its something that they believe in, and maybe there is a place in here for people who are willing to post what they believe to be right. Yes we all have a common bond but we are also so different from each other in oh so many ways.
Dave
